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A Trip to The Skies. 



THE STARS! THE STARS! 



Ecce Caelum. 



BY 



Rev. L l . A; ALFORD, D. D., LL. D., 



Honorary member of the Society of Science, Letters and Art, of London, England, 
and President of the A. A. Association . 

LOGAXSPORT, IXD. 




PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, 

OF LOGAXSPORT, L\D., U. 8. A., AND BY THE SOCIETY 

OF SCIENCE, LETTERS AND ART, LONDON, ENG. 



1884, 









Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, 

By Rev. L. A. Alfokd, D. D., LL. D., 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



PRESS OF 

/ILLARD N. HALL, 

LOGANSPORT. 

IND. 



Dedicated to 



London, 




LoGANSPORT, 



Science, Letters and Art. 



PREFACE. 



I have been permitted to read the advance sheets of Dr. 
L. A. Alford's Work, entitled "A Trip to the Skies." It 
describes an imaginative journey from the Earth to the vari- 
ous orbs of the sky, and the different systems of the universe, 
which constitute its grand unity, and explains the general 
principles of astronomy in a popular form. It opens to the 
mind the immensity of Creation and leads our thoughts to 
adore and worship its mighty Author. The style is fresh 
and spirited, and as grand and grave as the subject is; it is 
very entertaining, as well as instructive, and not without an 
occasional flash of becoming humor. I have read the advance 
sheets with much interest and pleasure. 

Horace P. Biddle. 

The Author of the "Trip to the Skies" would only remark to those abroad, that the Hon. Horace P. 
Biddle is Chancellor of the American Depirtment of the London (Eng.) Society of Science, Letters and 
Art"— the Author of a score of popular Works—late Supreme Judge of Indiana, and js the possessor of the 
largest private or public Library, at his "Island Home." of any in the State. 



INTRODUCTION. 



BY REV. S. FLEMING, PH. D. LL. D. 



The starry firmament, from the earliest ages of human 
history, has been an object of intense admiration and study. 
The deep blue vault above us, apparently a vast concave 
sphere revolving around the earth daily, jetted with twink- 
ling stars of various magnitudes, set in various groups and 
clusters, have ever attracted the attention of the old and 
young as surpassing in beauty, any other object of Nature up- 
on which the eye rests, inducing in the minds of different 
persons questions as varied as their intelligence; from the child 
query — "How I wonder what you are?" to the prof ounder 
questions pertaining to the constitution, relations and 
mission of these celestial objects which have engaged the 
thoughts of intelligent minds for many thousands of years. 

The sublime panorama moving in stately grandeur from 
age to age, preserving its order of orbits within orbits, of 
systems within systems, has not only challenged the admira- 
tion of star-gazers, but it has evoked an explanation of the 
phenomena, has taxed the powers of mathematics to deter- 
mine the magnitudes, distances, centers of motion and veloc- 
ties of individual suns and systems, and invited the prof ound- 
est men of science and philosophy to explain the cosmogony 
or Bcience of the genesis of the heavens and the earth, the 
geology, or constitution of the stars, the attractive force 



INTRODUCTION. 



which binds together the universal system, from the infinitesi- 
mal meteoric particle which comes flashing down from the 
apparent voids of space, to the immense aggregates, millions 
of miles in diameter ; to explain the phenomena of the diverse 
shades of the seven primary colors, from the deep red to the 
pure violet, and the seven voices of the spheres, pealing forth 
eon to eon, " in reason's ear," the anthem of their complex 
and sublime motions. 

"Forever singing as they shine, 
The hand that made it is Divine." 

Astronomy may well claim to have been the most ancient 
of the sciences. All the nations of antiquity have preserved 
records of their observations of the celestial bodies. Even 
the symbols and allegories preserved in their histories, give 
evidence of the highest antiquity of this science. Thus not 
only Egyptian and Chaldean shepherds who " watched their 
flocks by night," in the extended vale of the Nile or on the 
beautiful plains of Bethlehem, gazed with intelligent interest 
and intense delight upon the clear blue vault studded with 
stars of varied glories, but u wise men," Jewish astronomers, 
wended their way for hundreds of miles from their homes in 
Persia or Arabia, following the leadings of the " star they 
had seen in the East," to honor the new-born King, thus hon- 
oring the connection of Science and Religion, which should 
never have been divorced. 

But we must travel back in thought, through the ages to 
the earliest periods of history, to find evidences of the pri- 
meval culture of astronomy. The familiar manner in which 
Job, the oldest writer or the sacred scriptures, refers to Arc- 
turus, Orion and Pleiades, shows that at that period the prom- 
inent clusters of stars with their central suns, and the con- 
stellations with their orders of motion, were known and 
named. Still farther back a thousand years, remarkably ex- 



INTRODUCTION. 



;u-t calculations had been made pertaining to the solar system. 

It is recorded that when Alexander the Groat, took Babylon, 
in the year 331 B. C, his Philosopher, Calisthenes, found in 
the tower of Babel, which after the " confusion of tongues" 
had been used for an astronomical observatory, calculations 
of eclipses for 1903 years preceding, giving evidence that 
these calculations were made 2234 years B. C, according to 
the shortest chronology. Further, Chinese records state that 
in the year 26S8 B. C, Hoang Ti, the Emperor, caused an 
observatory to be built, for the purpose of correcting the cal- 
ami er, and for other objects, and that the year was subse- 
quently determined to consist of 365-^ days, nearly the exact 
period as now found. 

The connection of the stars with the destiny of mankind, 
was suspected at an era nearly coetaneous with the study of 
the motions of the celestial bodies, and thence gradually As- 
trology, which in ancient times included both Astronomy 
proper and the art of foretelling the destinies of men and 
Empires by the aspect of the stars, became the controlling 
system of knowledge, cherished by all the nations of antiqui- 
ty, its influence extending down through the periods of his- 
tory to the time of Copernicus. Ancient astronomy, there- 
fore, while cultivated for its intrinsic value, and the pleasure 
it has ever afforded, must be regarded as having been chiefly 
promoted as the hand-maid of astrology. 

After thousands of years, during which pantheism and 
theism, science and religion, as well as true and false theories 
of Cosmogony, have been in conflict, the history of mankind 
brings us to the period of established science, in which we 
find Christian philosophy taking the symbols of the early and 
rude ages, and utilizing them for the illustration of the most 
sublime teachings of Theology. Thanks to the esteemed 
Author of kk A Trip to tin Skies" for leading reverent and 



INTRODUCTION. 



appreciative minds up into celestial excursions in illimitable 
space, to bask in the "sweet influences of Pleiades," to dis- 
cover the " bands v of Orion," to find "the hidings of the Power 
that brings forth Mazzaroth (the twelve signs of the Zodiac) in 
his season," that " guides Acturus and his sons," that " spreads 
out the North, high over the empty space, and hangs the 
Earth upon nothing ! — thus bringing the thoughts to contem- 
plate the immensity of the universe, and the grandeur of the 
motions of suns and systems around the central Throne of the 
Almighty, who upholds "the pillars of the Universe;" and 
thus by a new, sublime and interesting path, rich with its 
varied scenery, leading us 

"Through Nature, up to Nature's God." 

The celestial scenery never becomes old, nor loses its 
pristine charms. The deepest thinkers and most profound 
investigators, who have devoted their lives to the study of 
the stars, have ever had an increasing longing to know more 
of those sparkling wonders. Very great and rapid has been 
the progress of astronomy since the determination of the laws 
of planetary and stellar motion, especially since the introduc- 
tion of the larger class of telescopes, the invention of the 
spectrescope and the method of the spectrum analysis by 
which the character of the luminous rays determine both the 
elements and distance of bodies. The desire has become in- 
creasingly intensified to penetrate the depths of space and 
solve the problem pertaining to the nebulous phenomena 
which send down the path of light, from almost infinite dis- 
tances, evidences of myriads of stellar systems. 

But every additional astronomical fact discovered, con- 
firms the accepted doctrine, that the universe — the original 
conception of which was limited to the phenomena of the re- 
volving firmament — is one all related system of being, gener- 
ted by one set of forces, and bound together by one system 



INTRODUCTION. 



of laws. Hence there can be no isolation, either of a single 
body, group cluster or nebulae, — all are related by one system 
of complex motion, revolving like 4C wheels within wheels," 
the smaller systems being subordinate to the larger; 
thus as the earth is the center of the lunar motion, the two 
forming a binary system, so the Sun, Vega and Sirius, res- 
pectively constitute centers of our solar group, and cluster 
systems. »■*».» 

So it seems quite probable, that Alcyone, chief of the 
seven stars, is the center of our nebular system, made up of 
innumerable cluster systems, with unformed nebulous or 
gaseous matter, and which includes all the stars visible to the 
naked eye, with myriads of others too distant and comparative- 
ly small to be seen without the telescope. 

The magnitude of the respective centres above noticed, 
have been ascertained to be as follows: The Earth's volume 
is about fifty times that of the Moon; the Sim's volume, 
1,252,700 times that of the Earth; Vega more than 300 times 
that of the Sun; Sirius, 2,000 times larger than the Sun; 
Alycone, about 12,000 times the volume of the Sun. The 
distances of these orbs respectively from the Sun are given as 
follows: Mean distance of the Sun from the Earth, 91,430,000; 
— of Vega from the Sun about 70 trillions of miles; — of Sirius 
from the Sun, 125 trillions; — of Alcyone about 3,500 trillions. 

The periods of revolution of our Group and Cluster Sys- 
tems have not been definitely determined, owing to the 
extreme difficulties of exact observations, especially of the 
complicated motions of immense numbers of stars which 
appear in the field of view. Yet the direction and rate of 
motion of individual stars and groups, called " Star Drifts," 
have been in many cases approximately calculated — partly by 
telescopic and partly by spectroscopic observations. Some 



xii INTRODUCTION. 



stars have been found to move at the rate of thirty miles per 
second. One of the most favorable groups for observation 
includes five of the stars in Ursa Major, which Prof.. Higgins 
found to be moving in the same general direction at the rate 
of seventeen miles per second of time, so great and so won- 
derful is the iieetness of the Stars in the Stellar Skies.* 



NOTE. --For further information in reference to the Classification of Sciences, and the general 
accepted Theory of Cosmogony, the reader is referred to a work published by Dr. Fleming, called PAN 
Dualism. 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



The fi living mind stops not its thought, 

At death, but flies beyond ; 
It goes not willingly to naught, 

But tain would correspond 
With all the things that never die, 

Throughout the earth or in the sky. 

The living soul knows not of death, 

Below, around on high; 
For if it be indeed God's breath, 

He dies if it must die, 
As what God gave, that He will give 

While God exists man's soul will live. 

-H. P. Biddle. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Heavens. 

To obtain a general or a comprehensive knowl- 
edge of the starry-decked heavens, we must take 
into consideration a corresponding conception of 
the heavenly bodies — the vast magnitude of the 
work of .creation. 

To do this we must eliminate the most profound 
conceptions of chaos and matter, of void and 
spheres; of force and order that the human mind 
can possibly comprehend. 

We must also fully understand that Life Force 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



is the only exhaustless force in the universe, and 
that Deity alone possesses this unlimited life force. 
That attractions and projections are his creations 
as much as worlds, or systems of worlds. 

To think that this earth, when in comparison 
with the Solar Sun, is like to a cherry stone 
associated with a ball two feet in diameter, 
and then to know, that this great, bright 
sun in our heavens, when in association with 
other suns in other systems, is as inferior 
to them as our earth is to him — to know this and 
to launch out into a partial survey of such unlim- 
ited majesty and splendor demands more than an 
ordinary comprehension, for astronomy embraces 
the heavens universal. What is this immense 
Universe? And does this vast machine move 
itself, govern itself, regulate itself? 

Dare we look up into this vast and incompre- 
hensible fleet of worlds with hope? Does our 
Heavenly Father chide us for so doing, or does He 
not rather delight in seeing His feeble children 
climb up the dizzy heights of science and admir- 
ingly gaze upon the works of Him whom we are 
taught to call our Father. 

"Our Father who art in Heaven. 1 ' 

Jehovah loves a well-educated mind. With 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 15 

Him and His children "ignorance is not bliss." Tis 
not u folly to be wise." When by the grand ideali- 
zation of our mind we add immense distances to 
our vision by the use of the telescope, bringing not 
only distant stars nearer to us, but millions of 
worlds before unknown, He smiles who loves us 
and He is glorified who gave us being. 

Let us then take courage and hasten from the 
known to the unknown, that we may view the fields 
where the mighty angels reside and where God is 
glorified as much in the management of worlds as 
He is in their formation — as much in angels' work 
as in that of His anointed Israel. 

Before we proceed further, let us take a hasty 
survey of the solar system. To do so, we will take 
an Express Train of thought, and travel millions of 
miles a second and see as much of the wonders of 
the skies as possible. We must not let our train 
collide with regular trains; so we will make our 
first station the sun — 95,000,000 of miles away. 
( The mean distance of the sun from the earth is 
not 95,000,000 of miles, but for convenience we have 
adopted that reckoning.) Now, all aboard on a 
straight track to the limits of the solar system. 
Millions of miles a second we go, but — halt! Here 
is the regular train on the orbit track of Mercury — 



16 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

37,000,000 miles. It is as red as fire and its speed is 
terrible. It passes at 112,000 miles an hour. Its 
diameter 3,200 miles; day, twenty-four hours, five 
minutes; year, eighty-eight days. 

We are now on a straight line, 37,000,000 miles 
from the sun. Mercury has passed. All aboard. 
The next station is Venus, 31,000,000 further on. 
Look! Yonder comes Venus at 75,000 miles per hour. 
The diameter of Venus is 7,700 miles; day, twenty- 
three hours; year, 224 days. We are now 68,000,000 
miles from the sun. On again. There, see! Our 
planet, the earth, is coming at the awful speed of 
68,000 miles per hour. Diameter, 7,926 miles. We are 
now on our straight line, 27,000,000 of miles farther. 
We are now about 95,000,000 of miles from the sun. 
On again for a long distance. Stop! We are now 
on the track of Mars, 142,000,000 of miles from the 
sun. She rolls by at 55,000 miles per hour. Her 
diameter is 4,189 miles; day, 23i hours; year, 321 

days. 

Still on a much longer trip, 343,000,000 of miles 

to Jupiter. See! There she comes! Stand aside! 
She is 1,280 times as large as the earth, and is roll- 
ing by at 30,000 miles per hour. She revolves in 
ten hours; year, nearly twelve of our years. See 
her great belts of light and dark. 



A 'IK II' TO Till'. SKIES. 



All aboard! We are now 480,000,000 miles from 
the sun. Our nexl stopping station will be at the 
orbit track of Saturn, 800,000,000 miles from our 
grand luminary. Yonder she comes, 1,100 times 
larger than the earth, and at the marvelous speed 
of 22,000 miles per hour. Diameter, 79,000 miles; 
rotation, 10£ hours; a year is thirty of ours. See, 
there are two great solid rings around Saturn. 
The inside ring is 17,000 miles wide, and 19,000 miles 
off from the body of the planet. The second ring 
is 18,000 miles farther out, and 10,000 miles in width. 

On we go again — ten hundred million miles. 
We are now 1,800 million miles from the sun, and 
here comes the planet Herschel or Uranus. 

We are now an almost incomprehensible dis- 
tance from the sun, but still in the Solar System. 
Uranus is eighty times larger than the earth, and 
rolls by us at 15,000 miles per hour. She has six 
moons seen by Herschel, three by other astronomers 
-these moons moving the opposite way from the 
Satellites of other Planets. 

Our next stopping station is at the boundary 
of the Solar System. The remotest planet from the 
sun is Leverier or Neptune, 2,850 millions of miles 
away. Clear the track! Here comes our last great 



iS A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

planet in the Solar System like a u cannon ball" 
on its heaven laid track — its orbit, and the gran- 
deur of this far off world is indeed indescribable. 
Here is supposed to be a group of asteroids, and 
these are the outer limits of the Solar System. 

Let us now direct our train of thought for a 
farther survey of God's wonderful works in the 
skies. If we look at the heavens from an earth 
standpoint they appear as a vast concave with 
innumerable fire specks everywhere; no constel- 
lations; no chain; no dependence of one upon 
another; but it is really not so. 

Link intercommunicates with link, constella- 
tions with constellations, systems with systems, till 
we behold, indeed, a vast assemblage of worlds in 
complete intercourse, balancing and regulating 
themselves by forces to us unknown. But we ask, 
can the heavenly bodies be classified, or does the 
majesty of their motions forbid such a hypothesis? 
No, indeed. They are already classified, and have 
been from remotest Biblical antiquity. Astrono- 
mers have also classified them by the Biblical or 
Mystical Seven. Let us observe this astronomical 
classification of the systems: 

First The Satellite System, or moons revolv- 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 19 



ing around worlds as our Luna around our earth — 
as the moons of Saturn and of Herschel. 

Second . The Solar System, or worlds with their 
Satellites revolving around suns, as in our Solar 
System. 

Third. Sun's Systems; or many Solar Systems 
like ours revolving with all their attracted orbs 
and satellites around some grand central sun. 

Fourth. Group Systems, or sun's systems with 
all their Solar Systems, and their a ppendages revolv- 
ing around the grand centre of their attraction, 
forming the centre of thousands of Solar Systems. 

Fifth, Cluster Systems, or a grand celestial 
centre around which thousands of groups are radi- 
ating in grandeur incomprehensible and glorious. 

Sixth. Nebulae Systems, or the whole galaxy's 
centre, around which all the Cluster Systems with 
all their Group Systems with all their Sun's Sys- 
tems, with all their Satellite Systems, radiate. 

Seventh. The Universal Centre, or the revolv- 
ing galaxies that radiate around the throne of 
the Supreme Eternal. 

In this wonderful age, when telescopes of 
marvelous power sweep the heavens, we may 
greatly increase our knowledge of the sublimity of 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



the skies by a careful survey of the majesty and 
magnitudes of the heavenly bodies. While so 
much celestial display is within the reach of our 
telescopes ( that is our powerful telescopes, aided 
by the spectroscope — which give to us our knowl- 
edge that our galaxy — the milky way across the 
heavens — is a complete system, made up of lesser 
systems,) we cannot but recognize a still mightier 
range in these circling beatitudes even of galaxies 
unknown to us, but constituting other fields of 
enchantment and wonder. 

To look understandingly at the heavenly bodies 
from such an exalted centre as we conceive the 
Universe centre must be, we are necessarily forced 
to associate ourselves with illimitable spaces — with 
incomprehensible motions. Thus, while we view 
the heavens as an incomprehensible vessel-fleet of 
systems, we must also realize that each division 
accords to another, as in geometry or geography. 

We have Districts, Townships, Counties, States, 
Continents, Hemispheres, and the Globe, each 
having a central governing power, submissive to 
the next, embracing a wider range, superlative 
only by the laws of reciprocal intercourse, whether 
of Justices, Chief Magistrates, Kings, or Poten- 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



tates. So of the heavens from Satellite up to the 
great centre. 

To suppose the universe to have no central life- 
force, or that it is controlled by no intelligent 
Creator, is to invite into our discussion anarchy or 
contending equals, chance or confusion, where now 
undistracted harmony reigns. 

On such a hypothesis nothing is immutable or 
imperishable; but admitting a recognition of the 
Eternal, the intelligent and infinitely Wise Creator, 
we are ushered into the reasonable contemplation of 
revovling worlds and systems in celestial harmony. 

Let us, then, admitting an Eternal First Cause 
by the three steps of Jacob's Ladder, or by the 
swifter flight or an apostle who was caught up to 
the third heavens, or as the Revelator saw the 
heavens open and a voice saying, " Come up hither," 
avail ourselves of the celestial invitation, and sur- 
vey, as far as our limited capacity extends, the 
wonderful works of God throughout the vast 
unknown. 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



CHAPTER II. 

In our Solar "trip" we took a u train of 
thought'' from the .grand Solar Sun straight out 
in a tangent line to the limits of the Solar System, 
passing the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, 
Jupiter, Saturn, Herschel and Neptune, 2,850 mil- 
lions of miles from the Sun; and here we found 
the ultima thulae of the Solar System. 

Then admitting an Eternal First Cause, and 
being invited as we supposed by a holy angel to 
"Come up hither" in our train of thought, we 
hasted to obey, by preparing ourselves for the won- 
derful journey to the Skies. 

Leaning then on the word of the Great Messiah, 
" Fear Not," we are now ready to fly beyond the 
known, to the unknown. 

But before we start, let us ask ourselves, " Is 
there such a place as heaven?" A place where 
Christ is all and in all; where the saints of all ages 
are to meet and forever celebrate the glories of 
King Immanuel, and view that particular locality 



a trip TO the SKIES. 23 



of which He spoke when He said: "I will prepare 

a Mansion for you, that where I am there ye may 
be also." If we are fully convinced that there is 
such a "City," such a "Home," such a u Place," 
in a realm beyond the reach of telescopes, a country 
only explored by faith, then surely we are invited 
to climb this Jacob's Ladder, and view the promised 
land. 

Enchantment of wonders! the land of "Beuhe!" 
the "great white throne," the u consuming fire" of 
glory's eternal brightness. 

Here, at the great Centre of all centres, we may 
gaze upon the Light producing source of all moral 
and intellectual light — the Light that illuminates 
all moral sensibility, of all sentient intelligences. 

Here also is the Centre of Holiness. The Holy 
Spirit's great, grand Centre. Here is Life's Centre. 
God is the anthor of life. All moral and celestial 
intelligences owe their being to the Author of 
Life. He who here resides. 

Here also resides the centre of all equity. 
Justice — the God of Justice. Here we behold, 
through the door of Mercy, the God of Mercy. 

The well-spring of the hopes of the trangressors 

for whom pardon is offered through the infinitely 



j 4 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

Merciful. This throne is indeed Mercy's Centre. 

Here are the pavillions of eternal Truth. The 
God of all Truth resides here. And the crowning 
glory of this Great Centre is that a God of Love 
occupies this Throne of Grace. 

This is indeed the celestial council chamber of 
the great God; the central abode of Wisdom, 
Majesty and Power; the " Dwelling Place" of the 
great, grand Master. 

Faint conceptions of this" Great White Throne " 
are revealed to us by the prophets — brilliant gems 
are divinely unfolded to us from the lips of the 
Great Messiah, but the overwhelming display of 
the " Light Unapproachable" no thought can reach 
— no imagination paint. An uprush of incandes- 
cent Light surrounds the throne of the great " I 
Am,' 1 and no intelligence can behold with steadfast 
gaze this awful Majesty and burning splendor. 

If Mount Sinai was " terrible " to behold, when 
Jehovah deigned to bring together a few of the 
rays of His Omnipotent Self — if Moses could say " I 
exceedingly fear and quake," how terrible indeed 
must be His glory, at this great grand Center. 
From hence emanates all power, and at this centre 
all wisdom dwells. 



A TRIP TO TllK SK!i:S. JJ 

We feel forbidden bj the very laws of our 
being, to introduce a single question as to the 
Entity, Sovereignty or Eternity of God. 

As visitors to this "Mount of God," let us be- 
hold His immutability at the centre of these 
limitless spaces that surround the Throne ; for if 
there is a place that is immovable, it must be 
where Infinite strength resides 

In every conceivable direction from this Cen- 
tre, myriad Worlds and Systems and Galaxies are 
visible. 

What a vast Panorama is spread out before us; 
what grandeur, what order, what terrible display. 

Our chariot of thought must soon pass on, but 
stop and look a moment longer. What a vast reti- 
nue of semi-Deities (we almost say) receive their 
"orders" from this great White Throne— no won- 
der the great minded Revelator could mistake one 
of these and fall down to "worship Him. 11 They 
are so God-like, so super-human. 

But see! They haste away on orders as incom- 
prehensible to us as is their motions of fieetness, 
when compared with our slow tread while climb- 
ing the rugged mountains of this mundane orb. 

But because unknown to us, shall we assert 
that God has nothing for Angels to do? 



26 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



Angels are but links in tlie chain between God 
and Matter — between Omnipotent life force and 
mechanical force. 

The vitalization of motion must be kept active 
by life-force, for no other force is exhaustless, and 
as God has formed all matter — all Worlds, the vi- 
tal force to operate this vast Machine, must have 
been committed to active, sentient Intelligences. 

Now, being at the place designated as the 
Christian's Home, let us look for a moment at the 
u Many Mansions" in the city of the "New Jerusa- 
lem" which the Revelator saw as coming down 
from Heaven all decked in superlative glory u as a 
bride adorned for her husband." 

As we have read before starting on our u Trip 
to the Skies" a full description of the foundations, 
the gates — the gems of Glory that adorn its finish — 
the golden streets — the silver fountain — the River 
of Life and its purifying power — w r e have only to 
visit the " Many Mansions," and then pursue our 
journey amidst the wonderful galaxies of the 
skies. 

The first wonderful Mansion is that of Light- 
No sun opens the morn or closes the evening with 
its silvery sitting, but one great, grand Mansion of 



A Tkll> TO THE SK1KS 



Light. Light to the hitherto darkened soul. 
Light in God's Light. 

O how the shadows of our dreamy life are 
chased away as we enter this Mansion. We rejoice 
in the faith of our pilgrimage which said "It may 
not be my way, it may not be thy way, but in His 
own dear way, the Lord will provide." But as we 
cannot enter this Mansion of Light, so we cannot 
learn all that we now wish to know, but will wait 
for the Angels to come with their chariot, in the 
near future, with a free Passport into that Mansion 
of Light, and then we shall forever exult in its 
glory. 

See! Yonder is the Mansion of Life. O how 
we shall rejoice to know that our names are 
written in the u Book of Life." Here the life of 
God actuates every guest, and His knowledge 
qualities us for this "life to come "—this life which 
we now live in the flesh which is "hid with Christ 
in God." 

" That life which Thou hast made Thy care, 
Lord I devote to Thee." 

But look again ! There is the Mansion of Holi- 
ness. O how glorious — Holy beings without a 
stain enter, and reside in this Mansion, and Were 
it not for the fountain you see yonder flowing from 



28 A TRIP TO THE SKIEs. 

the " Throne of God and the Lamb," we could 
never enter this Holy place. So we are only per- 
mitted to see u as in a glass" this Holy! Holy!! 
Holy!!! Mansion. 

Let us now visit the Mansion of Justice. How 
exceedingly high are its walls, how equitable all 
its decisions. We ask how can we enter this 
glorious Mansion? The answer comes from our 
Celestial R. E, Guide Book "The Just shall Live 
by Faith." If Christ is formed in us, the hope of 
glory where he enters we may enter, but now our 
Passport is not sealed, so we will wait, O how 
beautiful is the Mansion of Mercy. Here are 
acclamations of thanksgiving — of praise and of 
glory, to a God of Mercy. 

But yonder is the Mansion of Truth, in which 
is found the Eternal Oracles of God— the celestial 
decisions from which there is no appeal. 

Look a moment at the Mansion of Love, where 
centers Eternal constancy, and then we will leave 
this glorious City, and view the wonders of the 
Skies. 



\ TRIP TO THE SKIES 29 



CHAPTER III. 

N E B u lJe S yste m . 

We will now leave this citadel of God having 
seen the "Many Mansions" in the New Jeru- 
salem, shortly to descend from God out of 
Heaven "as a bride adorned for her husband,'' 
but could not enter these Celestial Mansions, be- 
ing only invited to "come up hither," not to enter 
that Eternal rest. 

Let us now look afar and behold this vast 
mechanism of the Skies, to us inexpressibly won 
derful; and intuitively we ask, will "the Seven 
Spirits of God" ever unseal this Book of Wonders? 
Must it forever be as it now appears — these stellar 
orbs changing and reforming, like jets of gas in a 
great City, as we sweep on our night train around 
its strand display; some apparently receeding and 
some advancing; some in long rows as sentinels, 
and anon all joined in one general blaze of light. 
So now of the Heavens, when thus on one of these 
moving orbs, we sweep around the great, grand 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



center of Celestial Magnitudes. All is in motion 
— but how? 

But now, on our grand excursion train of 
thought, as we have stopped at the terminus of 
immutability, let as look abroad. Can we compar- 
atively master the field? Can we realize that the 
great Nebulae System, composed, as we have seen, 
of Cluster Systems, Group Systems, Sun's Systems, 
Solar Systems and Satellite Systems, is itself but a 
Single System, and in comparison with other Sys- 
tems, composed of Systems in like manner with 
itself, may indeed be inferior to them, as our Earth 
is inferior to the Sun around which it revolves? 
How exceedingly vast the distances — how innu- 
merable the hosts of worlds — of Systems — of Celes- 
tial Nebulae. 

All revolving Worlds have fixed boundaries 
and well regulated orbits, as well as laws govern- 
ing their daily and yearly motions. 

But who vitalizes this stupendous whole; this 
unvarying rotation? 

Some might say Chance, others, Attraction 
and Projection; some, Force. But who created 
Chance, Attraction, Projection, Force ? 

Where have we found machinery in motion, 
without intelligent agencies to regulate and direct 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 31 

it \ And is not the stellar skies one vast machine? 

Could we think, that some day the Sun would 
forget to shine, the Moon forget to ride across the 
heavens in its full blaze of glory? Dark, dark un- 
ending night cover our Planet? Thin is indeed 
unthinkable, so long as the great Celestial Ruler 
harmonizes and vitalizes the whole. If corn would 
not plant itself by attraction, chance or force; if 
railroads could not lay their own track and origi- 
nate their engines without intelligent workmen, 
how could our Earth lay its track, its orbit, and 
take with it the ponderous Moon on its annual and 
diurnal motion? Surely reason does not accord 
to such an insane idea. Mechanism supposes the 
mechanic, as well as the operatives, to control the 
machinery. 

God rules over the children of men, as he does 
over the work of angels, and has an abundance of 
business for angels to do, as he also bids us, "Go 
work in my vineyard." So Angels have work to 
do, and these great and grand motions of the 
heavenly bodies witness to that department of 
angelic labor — " the mighty angel's" work. 

God works, angels work, and man is comman- 
ded to work. Jesus says: "My Father hitherto 
worked, and I work'" God's great domain requires 



32 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



the work of both mortal and spiritual intelligences. 
So the field where Angels labor, is, and must 
be, a vast field. Go 1 needs them or he would not 
have created them, and, although they are dual 
beings, while we are triune, yet in their field, they 
are as neccesary, as are we to the earth we are 
commanded to replenish. 

In one sense, God governs absolutely the des- 
tiny of nations. A nation could be destroyed in a 
single day as easily as an individual, but in His 
supreme wisdom He holds his dynamic forces from 
such an awful calamity, and nations increase and 
prosper. In one sense, He also holds the destiny 
of Angels, yet each have their work over which no 
unseen fatality predominates. 

If Angels govern the activities of these myriad 
worlds, there must of necessity be an "innumera- 
ble company of the Angels," for, in the manage- 
ment of this one Nebulae System at which we are 
now directing our attention, aided by the telescope 
in our Celestial survey, an exceedingly great 
host is necessary. The arranging of orbits— the 
, equation of power in attraction and repulsion— the 
rapidity of motion, all need attention, wisdom, or- 
der. And should the solar gasses evolve and dimiiv 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 33 

ish from exhaustion, an eliptic comet must safely 
cross the track of worlds and supply the needed 
power. So many Systems, such vast and ponder- 
ous orbs to fly through the realms of space, such 
inconceivable activities in variety — marvelous, yet 
harmonious— demand the labors of the mighty 
angels. 

How wonderful now to see, not only the mo- 
tion and regularity of these flying orbs, but the 
Engineers and Managers of this vast machine. Only 
one single Nebulae System demands a host of the 
Celestial Cherubim, Seraphim, Angels and Arch- 
angels, so that everywhere in the midst of these 
startling activities, we behold harmony, concord, 
connection — an endless chain of harmonies. 

But yonder, look! Other Nebulae Systems, 
equally vast, are circling around their centers in 
as perfect harmony as does our Earth around the 
Sun, and now to us, as we look out from this exal- 
ted station, we can distinguish the boundaries of 
these vast magnitudes from other Nebulae, as we 
do Jupiter with his four Moons, Saturn with his 
eight, or the Earth with her Luna, 

From hence, we look upon these revolving 
clusters of galaxies, as we now look upon a single 



34 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

Solar System or group. How vast the contempla- 
tion. Millions upon millions of galaxies appear at 
every point from this wonderful center. No mar- 
vel, that the Revelator spoke of the host that peo- 
pled these realms, as "thousands of thousands, and 
ten thousand times ten thousand" — a host "that no 
man could number." 

What a field for the armies of the Heavens, 
when we realize that the motions of these vast 
Systems in their circling harmonies around these 
great, grand centers, must have been committed to 
these mighty messengers of the Most High. Who 
else? 

We see a steamer far out on the lake, plodding 
its way onward, and though so far from us that 
we do not discover a person on board, still we say, 
who other than man, manages this steamer. 

How strange when gazing at the terrific fleet- 
ness of a passing world, we should doubt the man- 
aging necessity, of sentient intelligencies. How 
could the " heavens declare the Glory of God " only 
through the celestial messengers that manage these 
rotations under the Divine Superintendence. 

Illimitable galaxies startle us, and we gaze 
with wonder and inexplicable awe, as we behold 
the field of these mighty angels, who, with the 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 35 

fleet ness of thought direct the revolving machinery 
of thf great God, in accordance with His Divine 
command. 

Here now, let nslook again and ask, is this the 
"City of the Great King," the u Oity of God," the 
"New Jerusalem," the "Home of the Church of 
the First Born, the Bride of Christ?" 

11 Oh, glorious day ! Oh, blessed hope! 
My heart leaps forward at the thought, 
When in that happy, happy land, 
We'll no more take the parting hand." 

Ah, reader, will yon and I re-visit this Glorions 
Home in an angel chariot, instead of this excursion 
train of Faith ? Will we indeed enter these Man- 
sions and dwell in this " Palace of God" forever? 
Will the few more years of life fit us for that 
Eternal Home, having our sins washed away 
through the " Fountain filled with Blood," and our 
" Robes made White in the Blood of the Lamb ? " 

We shall see, bye and bye. 

Our next trip will take us into the grand 
Nebulae System to explore the fields that astrono- 
mers faintly see through our powerful telescopes. 



36 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Our Nebula System. 

Reader, can you by any possible reflection con- 
sider the very slender thread that binds us to these 
Solar skies; and can you for a moment measure an 
Eternity of duration elsewhere, and contrast the 
greatness of that duration with the uncertainty of 
this ? If you possibly can do so, you will at best 
only grasp an Eternity of fancy — not the great 
reality of unchanging duration. 

To be happy with the great — the learned — the 
mighty, we must ourselves be competent to that 
association. Children, though destitute of man- 
hood strength, may join in the general joy, when 
some mighty achievement has been accomplished 
by a stronger brother, and we do not hesitate to 
accord to them the right to rejoice, because it is 
in the nature of legitimate kindred to do so. 

Are we the legitimate kindred of those to 
whom, in the hour of dissolving ties, we look for, 
as our guardian angels, to ferry us over the dark, 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 37 

cold stream of death? On what do we base a con- 
clusion of such vast magnitude? How fearful to 
be in great peril, where no one can help us — a 
ship at sea, on fire, and we helpless, on board. 

Now, we in our train of thought, have supposed 
ourselves safe in traveling up the Christian's high- 
way of song and celestial gladness, have dismissed 
our fears ; have ignored our peril ; have, like our 
polar exploration parties, looked forward to a glor- 
ious return, and have not dared to reflect upon the 
awful fields of limitless duration, where our com- 
pass gives no tangible direction, our vision falls on 
no familiar star, our little all, on the billowy arch- 
ipelago of the unknown, and we flying through 
the unknown in our fancy-formed chariot of 
thought. 

Look away across the orbits of galaxies, and 
then add telescope to telescope, till all of earth, 
have added distances to incomprehensible dis- 
tances, and is there not a star, a group, a system of 
worlds beyond ? Surely the end is unthinkable, 
^either of space or planets! 

Then whither will we fly, and who will lead us 
out into fields so fearfully vast, that, should we at- 
tempt the journey alone, we may be eternally lost 
in the bewilderment of unsurveyed galaxies? Have 



38 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

we a friend here who could send a servant to ac- 
company us outside of "the highway cast up for 
the ransomed of the Lord to walk in" — the way we 
came to this city ; that we might safely start again 
on our sidereal trip through the skies ? Yes. The 
poet has sung it thus— "What a friend we have in 
Jesus." 

And this friend is here " preparing mansions 
for them that love him," and if we ask, He will 
send His angel to accompany us on our celestial 
exploration. 

Having obtained a heavenly escort, let us haste 
on in thought's rapid express train at trillions of 
miles a second, into the ultimathule of the Creat- 
or's works. ' . 

Angel guide, please take us to that brilliant 
fixed star in the constellation of Bootes. Ah, we 
are at Arcturus, away in the heavens, not less than 
nineteen trillion of miles from the earth we in- 
habit. How inconceivable the distance, (19,000,000,- 
000,000.) Now, suppose the whole orbit of the earth 
were a dark, opaque body; 183,000,000 miles across, i^ 
would become only a speck not half as large as the 
letter "o" in the type used in this sketch, when 
seen from the fixed star, Arcturus. 

We are apt to be led astray by the term "fixed 



A TRIP TO THE SKIE 39 

star/ 1 and suppose these stars are stationary in the 
skies, but they are all in motion, and the farther 
off they are, it seems only to increase the rapidity 
of their motion through the heavens. 

Arcturus, one of the fixed stars, is rolling 
through space at the terrible rate of two hundred 
thousand miles (200,0(30) per hour. 

A few chapters back, we were almost terrified to 
see the little planet, Mercury, roll past us at one 
hundred and twelve thousand miles (112,000) per 
hour, but here is a fixed star of a diameter almost 
incomprehensible, hurrying on at nearly twice the 
speed of our second door neighbor, between us and 
the Sun, Mercury. 

Now these fixed stars must be great suns, 
around which radiate a vast retinue of worlds, and 
where is the track — the orbit of Arcturus ? If, ad- 
vancing in the earth's orbit, in our sweep around 
the Sun, we approach one hundred and eighty- 
three millions of miles nearer a fixed star, a parral- 
lax, as Prof. Airy asserts, shows an increase of the 
star equal to only six- tenths of an inch a mile dis- 
tant, how inconceivably vast must be the distance 
then, between the astronomer and the star he is 
trying to develope. Then again, while this star is 



4 o A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

moving through space at the rate of 200,000 miles 
an hour, it would be three hundred years in chang- 
ing its position 2,000 miles on its vast orbit. 

We mentioned Arcturus in the Northern Con- 
stellation of the Bootes, as our stopping place. Our 
readers are aware that the Greek letters are used 
to denote the*stars of the various apparent magni- 
tudes — hence Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, etc. 
These letters do not give the idea of the magni- 
tudes of the sidereal worlds, for that is impossible, 
for our greatest telescopes fail to discover a disk 
or any tangible clew to their magnitudes— their 
brightness only, is thus designated. Stars of the 
first, second and third magnitudes in the Greek 
alphabetical letters, instead of 1, 2, 3, etc. 

There must be startling wonders in these heav- 
ens, and our readers will be curious to know of 
what advantage it can be to us to take this u Trip 
to the Skies" when we cannot comprehend the dis- 
tances, magnitudes and motions of these vast and 
ponderous orbs. Why, my dear reader, these are 
our reasons : 

First, we have a father in heaven. 

u Our Father who art in Heaven." 

These orbs were made by him : 

"He made the Stars also."* — Gen.,i. x^ i. 

We are his offspring and in his legacy we inherit 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



a relation to his works. This world is not our eter- 
nal home, for we tarry only our three score years 
and ten and then we pass away. 

Second. Somewhere in these Heavens, the 
saints of all ages will meet in the brightness of the 
glory of the only begotten Son of God. 

Third. We are commanded to "search out the 
deep things of Grod." We owe to God this tribute 
of our intellect. 

Hence, in thought, let us pass beyond the tele- 
scope's range, and from the books of Revelation 
and Philosophy, explore the hidden mysteries of 
the vastness of unexplored galaxies. 

It is quite probable that in the days of Job, as- 
tronomy was far in advance of the present. In the 
questions asked Job in reference to the Pleiades, 
Mazzaroth, Arcturus, and Orion, the supposition is 
that he understood the majesty, motion, and influ 
ences of the stars and constellations. (See Job, 
xxxviii: 31-2.) If so, we have failed as much in our 
telescopic achievements, as did the inventor of the 
lumber wagon and common highway, fail as to 
speed with the railroad passenger coach, drawn by 
a powerful engine. 

ik Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his sea- 



4>2 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

son, or canst thou guide Acturus with his sons." — 
Job xxxviii: 31. 

Job refers quite familiarly to these mighty 
stars in the following language: 

u He shaketh the earth out of her place and the 
pillars thereof tremble. He commandeth the sun 
and it riseth not, and sealeth up the stars. He 
alone spreadeth out the heavens and treadeth up- 
on the waves of the sea. He maketh Arcturus, 
Orion and Pleiades, and the Chambers of the South. 
He doeth great things past finding out ; yea, and 
wonders without number." 

This wonderfully brilliant star, Arcturus, is in 
the constellation of the bear-driver, Bootes, who, 
like a mountain-range hunter, holds in the grasp 
of his right hand a huge club, and by his left, 
guides his fierce hounds in a continuous chase of 
the great bear as he hastes around the polar star. 
You will discover this magnificent star in the left 
knee of this monster man Bootes. It formes two 
triangles with other fixed stars, namely: Denebola 
and Spica, and also Denebola and Cor-Caroli. 

The "Sons of Arcturus" as adverted to in the 
Almighty's question to Job, are probably Spica, 
Denebola, Cor-Caroli, and Segimus, these all being 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 43 

arranged in right angles and triangles with 

ArctnruB. 

The mythology that accompanies these constel- 
lations, is so mixed up with procreation that no 
tangible fact accompanies their history. It would 
appear from this reading of Greek and Roman 
Mythology that constellations were intelligent per- 
sons, male and female, and marriages and births 
were common among the stars. Indeed, a very 
strange phenomenon. We only advert to these 
imaginary constellations the better to locate the 
Grand Centres of the sidereal universe, and as to the 
sex; be it bear, or wolf, or dog, or under any other 
name whereby sex or procreation are supposed to 
occur, we dissent. The great astronomer, Laplace, 
advanced a theory about the origin of the Solar 
System, which, if true, might apply to other sys- 
tems and give us the idea that great planets sur- 
rounded by vast nebulaes of gas may throw off rings 
which might condense into worlds, and so continue 
to advance in multiplying numbers till the whole 
nebulae become opaque bodies, local in orbits, 
formed by attraction and projection, or by attrac- 
tive and repellant forces. 

These worlds or orbs being produced from the 
gaseous surrroundings of Arcturus may properly 



44 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

have been called the " Sons of Arcturus," convey- 
ing the idea that the great planet once encircled 
them all in his own sidereal orbit. This could have 
no reference to sex or gender, to wars or marriages. 
Our readers are aware that our point of observa- 
tion is from a fixed star of Biblical antiquity, and 
that this star is in one of the Northern Circumpolar 
Constellations. This Constellation is always visi- 
ble to our gaze, of a clear night, at any season of 
the year, and it is hoped by the writer that our 
readers will cast an eye northward, and if possible, 
discover the Great Bear, as well as Arcturus, so 
that in our further trip across the heavens we 
may become at least familiar with the Sailor's 
Dipper, whose " pointers " you may discover in the 
body of the Great Bear, while his long tail fur- 
nishes a convenient handle by which you may 
recognize and determine the Pole Star from all 
other fixed stars in the heavens. 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 45 



CHAPTER V. 

() U R N E B U L M S V S 1 E M . 



1 It is sown in weakness; It is raised in power. " — Paul. 

"There's a Divinity that shapes our ends, 
Rough hew them how we will." 

O Lite ! a span at longest thread, 
Speed swiftly on with stately tread, 

To regions vast, unknown; 
We try to scan the darkened vale, 
And not discouraged, though we fail, 

Our faith, in weakness sown. 

But when the Pearly gates we see, 
Beyond the earth-born destiny, 

On Heaven's unending shore; 
Our bodies free from weakness given, 
Then bright the vale — the joys of Heaven, 

Ah! blessed forevermore. 

There's brighter worlds — far, for away. 
Where darkness never clouds the day, 

Nor sorrows reach the shore; 
Where blessed in Loves celestial chain, 
Where parted loved ones meet again, 

And shout life's weakness o'er. 



At Arcturus, in the Constellation of Bootes — 
away, away; so far that thought in his lightning 
chariot, tires in the endless survey. Now, suppose 



46 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

that we actually had a railroad track from Arc- 
turns' home, and the fare was one cent for each 
hundred miles, how much money would it require 
to puschase a ticket ? Astonishing ! One cent for 
each hundred miles would cost five billion, six 
hundred and seventy-eight million dollars. Pretty 
costly trip that ! At the end of the war "Uncle Sam" 
found his debt to be three billion, eight hundred 
million dollars. That would only pay our fare a 
little over half-way home at the rate of one- tenth 
of a mill per mile. Surely Arcturus is very far off. 

If Arcturus should suddenly disappear, we 
should see it as it now appears for twenty-six years 
to come, for it took all that long period for light to 
travel to us from this vastly distant star. 

Thought is the swiftest messenger known, and 
it is indeed wonderful how swiftly it passes from 
star to star, from constellation to constellation and 
from galaxy to galaxy, until the whole heavens 
have passed in review before us, yet we have only 

THOUGHT. 

The power, that gave us this power, must be 
equal to the highest conception of fleetness that 
our minds possess; hence no power less than the 
Infinite could have fashioned man. We then 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. ,7 

possess the infinite, for thought is as infinite, as 
space or duration, and hence an agent infinite, like 
his Creator, must be infinitely responsible to his 
Creator daring his eternity of being. 

Another misapprehension is liable to spring 
up in our minds in reference to all the stars going 
around the Pole Star. To us it so appears, and to 
us all, the Nebulae System appears to be going 
around our little earth, but it is not so. The mo- 
tion of the earth as it passes through the skies, 
changes the appearance of all the stars. Even the 
North Star becomes higher up or lower down in 
the heavens at different periods. And so of the 
fixed stars. 

We once heard a clergyman illustrating before 
his audience, the wonders of the skies in this man- 
ner : 

u You see, brethren and sisters, the unchange- 
able purposes of God, in the motion of the Great 
Bear and the Sailors' Dipper as they pass around 
the Polar Star from night to night continually. 

"Now, my brethren, the stars in the Great 
Bear's long tail, are a great deal farther off from 
the North Star, than are the pointers, and you see 
must go faster to keep up ; and yet my brethren, 



4 S ATRIP TO THE SKIES. 

the handle of the dipper remains just as crooked 
as it is, from year to year, and oh ! my brethren, 
should Gabriel stand with one foot on the sea and 
the other on the land, and grasp the Great Bear 
by his long tail, and slash worlds against worlds, 
what would we poor sinners do ? Won't the breth- 
ren and sisters sing a hymn ?" 

We are easily deceived, in looking up into the 
skies, if we expect to observe stars and constella- 
tions as they really are, for the reason that we too, 
are borne along at a terrible rapid rate. 

Is it possible for us to explore this mighty orb 
— Arcturus ? 

Only in reason and fancy can we go farther 
than astronomical apparatus will extend our vis- 
ion, but it must be admitted that we have found 
the star designated in the Almighty's question to 
Job. So we know this star has extraordinary won- 
ders, either in its inhabitants, or its motions, or its 
greatness. Maybe all these make it a notable 
star. If we take the Royal Astronomer's parallax — 
Prof. Airy, as a guide — we shall find it at least one 
million miles in diameter, and yet we lack the 
power to grasp a disk, or visible face, or projection 
from which to make a correct astronomical obser- 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 49 



ration. It must, in the nature of things, be greatly 
farther away than nineteen trillions of miles. 

But no matter as to the exact distance. We 
look above, and around, and the same arch of 
heaven surrounds us, and the stars shine in their 
twinkling brilliancy. The Milky way is no nearer; 
the constellations just as diffused throughout the 
heavenly arch; the fixed stars shining no less 
brightly than from the earth we inhabit. 

But what shall we say of the inhabitants of 
Arcturus ? They may be in form like ourselves. 
There are many reasons why we should thus be- 
lieve. First, all the children of God must possess 
all the attributes of God, and as the man, Christ 
Jesus possessed the human form, to be like him' 
they must possess a similar form; and as all angels 
ever seen are of that form, it is supposable that the 
inhabitants of Arcturus possess the same. 

And what can we recognize at Arcturus the 
same as here. We may recognize the seven Attri- 
butes of God here as elsewhere. u God is Light ;" 
light is here. God is Holiness; holiness is here. 
God is Justice; justice is here. God is Mercy; 
mercy is here. God is Truth ; truth is here. God 
is Love ; love is here. 



5 o A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

Then if beings in form like ourselves, possess- 
ing attributes like ourselves, are here, we certain- 
ly can be happy in their company, provided the 
seven tones of music are in this element as it is in the 
atmosphere of earth. Certainly angels sing, and 
why should there be a world without singing. By 
these vibrations, all languages, dialects and idioms 
find utterance. O! the song of redemption is music 
everywhere. Then the seven prismatic colors 
are seen in the stars as through our telescopes from 
an -earthly observatory. Yellow, green, orange, 
violet, indigo, red and blue, which, with the beau- 
tiful rainbow minglings, are seen in the Southern 
Cross, and widely scattered throughout the vast 
expanse. This adds beauty to the arch of heaven 
and variety to the colors of celestial scenery, and 
above all, it is God's universal monogram — "I made 
it." 

We then conclude that if Arcturus is inhabi- 
ted, that its citizens must have heard of Jesus of 
Nazareth, and are in essential love with him and 
all his children. 

"Let all the angels of God worship Him." 

Ah ! To stay here with the sinless and happy, 
and to rehearse the glad tidings of salvation in 
these celestial choirs, away from pain, old age, sor- 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



row, sin, suffering and death; who would not 
count such a resort the great centre of the soul's 
highest delight? 

Now suppose that we have had three distinct 
dispensations of time, and that these periods 
are of equal duration, and when full will amount 
to 12,000 years. "The woman had on her head a 
a crown of twelve stars." The first dispensation 
to be that of Purity— the sinless of our first parents 
peopled and replenished the earth for four thou- 
sand years, till a host that u no man could number," 
were transported to the skies, and Eden planted 
and Adam and the woman placed in the garden of 
temptation, where they dared to taste of that for- 
bidden tree in the midst of the garden of God. 

While still surrounded by some of the sinless 
of their vast progeny not transported for some cause, 
they (our first parents) sinned, and thereby brought 
death into the world. Then commenced the sec- 
ond dispensation — that of Types. This continued 
until the offering up of Christ on the Cross— 4,000 
years. 

Then the dispensation of Grace commenced and 
will continue 4,000 years. 

Of this transported church — "the church of the 
first born, whose names are written in heaven" — 



52 . A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

we know but little. Their monuments remain a 
wonder to the geologists everywhere — but no name, 
history or record anywhere. It might be possible 
that in this far off star, we shall find part at least 
of this host. 

These are the sinless ones of earth, whose long 
residence on our planet will make them to us a joy 
and rejoicing, while our victory over death — the 
king of tyrants — through the blood of the Lamb, 
will increase their joy in our company. Delightful 
thought ! We have an eternity to spend in the 
skies, and the greatness of the preparation for such 
an event, should inspire us with intense zeal to 
labor and secure a prize so vast, so precious. We 
ask our readers the question — around what centre 
does Arcturus radiate ? 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 53 



CHAPTER VI, 

ClBC M P O L A R C O NSTELL A T I (> N S. 

It is generally supposed that the circumpolar 
constellations radiate around the pole star as their 
great celestial centre. Many thousand readers, 
who well know the "pointers" in the Sailor's Dip- 
per have never learned their names, and perhaps 
are not aware that they have any distinct names. 
They are named Dubhe and Merak. They are 
always visible in northern latitudes from the fact 
that the earth hangs in the heavens at 23i degrees 
from a perpendicular to its orbit, and in perfect 
range with the Polaris or pole star, hence the axis 
of the earth sustains itself in a parallel to itself, and 
rarely varies from having the north and south pole 
constantly in range of line with the pole star or 
Polaris. Were it not for this obliquity of the elip- 
tic, we could have no variety of seasons. 

If Arcturus is in the constellation of Bootes, 
(one of the circumpolar constellations) it must of 
necessity radiate around the great Polaris. If fliis 
be so, its orbit must be of almost infinite circum- 



54 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

ference, and being understood by God's ancient 
servant, Job, in the majesty of its magnitude and 
motions, no doubt this greatly humiliated him in 
the presence of its Creator. "Cans't thou guide 
Arcturus and his sons?"— Job 38-32. What a ques- 
tion to propound to a poor frail mortal. 

If on examination as to the size of Arcturus 

our telescopes could afford us no disk, and con- 
sequently no accurate clew to its diameter, how 
sadly deficient we are when we attempt to trav- 
erse its orbit as it passes on its long journey around 
the yellow North Star. If at 200,000 miles an hour 
it would take three hundred years to change its 
position 2,000 miles as seen in its circle from our 
earth, what an almost infinite sweep it must take, 
and who but Him that formed it, could fully un- 
derstand its fearful surroundings. We had sup- 
posed that it might be inhabited by a sinless race, 
(for Astronomy furnishes no evidence that the 
u war in Heaven" extended farther than our Solar 
System,) and if so, then we might multiply the in- 
habitants of the sidereal skies into an infinity so to 
speak, and then transgress no logical deduction 
that might be drawn from revelation or from rea- 
son*. Surely in thought, we are not forbidden to 
explore the realms of Arcturus and his sons, and 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 55 

He that bade us take in this gigantic orb, will be 
the last to fault us, in the absence of other methods 
of conveyance, if we travel in a train of thought. 

Analogical logic, may furnish some basis of ar- 
gument as to the people that might be now engaged 
in this celestial labor, in drawing our conclusions. 
If God anxiously urged our first parents to multiply 
and replenish the earth, then the bringing into 
existence of holy beings must be pleasing to his 
sight. Other worlds demand for the declarative 
glory of God, an unnumbered host of sentient 
intelligences, therefore other worlds must be 
populated. The analogy in this logical deduction 
is neither far fetched nor chimerical, and must, 
when addressed to the thinking, appear with some 
degree of truthfulness. God's great commands, 
purposes and promises, not to speak of his revela- 
tion as to the multitudes in Heaven, all incline to 
this analogical reasoning, viz : that the stars are 
peopled with millions of millions. 

If so, u Arcturus and his sons" may be the 
abode of an unnumbered host of celestial intelli- 
gences. Then again the name of Arcturus for the 
star, may have originated from the superior excel- 
lence of some mighty angel whose achievements 



56 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

honored God, and he named this star after this 
mighty intelligence, as Columbia was named after 
Columbus — the great discoverer ; or the star Lev- 
erier, after the distinguished doctor and Astrono- 
omer who first discovered it. 

Undoubtedly the Almighty had reference to 
the star, and not to an individual creature, when 
he addressed Job. 

There are many promises to the faithful to show 
the design of God to transfer much of the power, 
now entrusted to Angels, to his redeemed people 
at the close of the present dispensation — the dis- 
pensation of Grace. 

"Thou hast been faithful over a few things; 
I will make thee ruler over many things; enter 
thou into the joy of thy Lord." Matt. 25-23. 

If a ruler, it must imply to rule sentient intel- 
ligences, or the management of worlds, or both. 
Such a glory as this is worth living for, especially 
when the path of holiness is the path of peace. 

Now if Arcturus is nineteen trillions of miles 
from the earth, how far must he be from the North 
Star? If we could, to a positive certainty, ascer- 
tain the diameter of the orbit of Arcturus, we 
might possibly find the distance to its centre, by 
which we might answer the question. 



A TRIP TO THE SKIKS. 57 

Let me propose a mathematical problem to 
those of our readers who are versed in figures, and 
let them take time to answer the question — what 
is the approximate diameter of the orbit of Arctu- 
rus? First, this star is moving through space (so 
astronomers tell us) at the terrible speed of 200,000 
miles an hour. On a tangent line this orbit circle 
varies the position of Arcturus in 300 years, to the 
extent of 2,000 miles. What then must be the cir- 
cumference or diameter of its orbit? Who can 
tell i These are the only land marks yet discov- 
ered. 

From analogy we may draw another conclusion 
— the Earth is larger than the Moon, that revolves 
around it ; the Sun is larger than all of the plan- 
ets that revolve around it, and, analogically, the 
the North Star must be larger than all the Circum- 
polar orbs. There is a wonderful potency or 
power thrown off from Polaris. Our Earth, at an 
almost inconceivable distance from this star, is bal- 
anced and held in position by it, during all its 
long journey of 183,000,000 miles while passing 
around the Sun. At no time does he lose his power 
over our Earth, notwithstanding the Sun holds 
an almost absolute potency over its light, heat and 
motion. It is held by astronomers that our bril- 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



liant noonday Sun, is himself with his entire reti- 
nue of planets, satellites and asteroids, hurrying 
on his orbit around the North Star, in associa- 
tion with other constellations, as our Earth is hur- 
rying around the Sun, in association with Jupiter 
and Saturn. 

It is indeed strange that the stars in the stellar 
skies should partake of all the seven prismatic col- 
ors, as they appear to us while looking at them 
through the telescope. Red, Blue, Yellow, Orange, 
Violet, Indigo and Green. In some constellations, 
all of these colors appear. 

The "sons of Arcturus" may be moons for 
aught we know, and not those stars holding the 
relations of angles and triangles to itself, and if so, 
our Astronomical appliances afford us no clew by 
which to solve the problem. 

Before we visit Polaris, let us journey to Orion, 
and if possible, discover "the bands of Orion." 

" Cans't thou loose the bands .of Orion?" Job, 38-31. 

It will be remembered that the outlines of the celes- 
tial constellation, Orion, are revealed in a parallel- 
ogram of four very brilliant stars. The reader will 
look for Orion amongst the Equatorial Constella- 
tions. 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. $9 



CHAPTER VII. 
Orion. 

We were about leaving Arcturus in the circum- 
polar constellation of Bootes, for Orion, one of the 
equatorial constellations, to ascertain, if possible, 
what were the "Bands of Orion." 

Speaking of constellations, some of our read- 
ers may not know how to understand that word. 
In this manner, perhaps you can better understand 
it. There are all over the heavens on a clear night, 
many clusters of stars, some larger than others, but 
always seen grouped or clustered together. To re- 
fer to these understanding^, we must give them 
a name, and instead of giving them names as we 
do in geography, as mountains, hills, valleys, 
oceans, lakes, rivers, continents, hemispheres and 
globes, we call them constellations, and name them 
from animals and characters, as the Great Bear, 
Bootes, etc. There are now in the Heavens ninety- 
nine constellations, viz : The Zodiacal Constella- 
tions, twelve in number ; the Northern or Circum- 
polar Constellations, forty-one in number, and the 



60 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

Southern Constellations, forty-six in number. A 
very great proportion of these receive their names 
from the animal world, as the Swan, Lesser Bear, 
Serpent, Lion, etc. 

The science of constellations is called astrog- 
nosy, and dawned upon the world at such an age, 
that we hardly know who first named them, or 
why they bear any name at all, especially when we 
can by no stretch of imagination discover the 
least possible resemblance between the stars and 
the animals from which astronomers were pleased 
to name them. Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Chi- 
nese and Japanese vied with each other to attain 
the highest perfection of a knowledge of the stars, 
and to obtain some new conception of their rela- 
tion to the life and happiness of mortals, and at 
one time, astrology was considered a safer coun- 
sellor to consult in many of the important prob- 
lems of life, than ever has been modern spiritual- 
ism. But we have an earlier birth-place of astron- 
omy than Egypt or Greece, if we consult the book 
of Job. 

Again and again astronomers have tried to 
change the names of the constellations, but with- 
out success. It seems so interwoven with mythol- 
ogy, both in Greek and Roman glory, both in prose 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 61 

and song, that in modern times we leave the myths, 
as a very senseless way of giving the origin of the 
names of the heavenly constellations, and had 
much rather allude to the Sailor's Dipper, the stars 
giving some outline of such a dish. Surely we can 
see nothing resembling the Great Bear. 

Osiris and Isis — the Sun and the Moon — were 
noted deities amongst the Egyptians, and they also 
classified the heavens into mansions, where their 
numerous Gods resided and w r ere really a nation 
of polytheists, or the worshipers of many Gods. 
Modern astronomers choose to retain nearly all of 
the mythical constellations, adding thereto such 
new constellations as by our access to greater tele- 
scopes appear in the unlimited spaces of the Heav- 
ens. As we journey from Arcturus in our fleet 
chariot of thought, ten thousand wonders will 
startle us into awe and admiration. We can save 
ourselves much fear by remembering that our Fath- 
er made these stars and constellations, and that 
He loves us, and will govern them in accordance 
with His unchanging love for His children. 

From our chariot window, let us look abroad 
as we journey along the equatorial line south-east- 
ward to Orion. Yonder to the left is the constella- 
tion of Ursa Major— the Great Bear. It contains 



62 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

one hundred and thirty-eight stars that are visible 
to the human eye from Earth, but now in the 
Heavens how wonderfully grand they appear. 

This constellation has b6en celebrated from 
time immemorial, by not only the Chaldean Shep- 
herds of thousands of years past, who in feasts and 
dances made Earth vocal by songs and triumphant 
celebrations, but also, by the American Iroquois 
Indians, who have not only celebrated it with 
grand festivities, but have given it the same name 
as the Chaldeans of bible days, the Great Bear — 
Ursa Major. But now look as we are passing. 
There is one star in this constellation that has a 
planetary nebulae — a fringe, so to speak, of minute 
stars — that must embrace a space much larger than 
the entire orbit of Neptune, or an u island uni- 
verse 7 ' of two or three trillions of miles in diame- 
ter. What a terrible array of worlds and systems ! 
How infinite are the creations of the Great God. 
All through the spaces explored by the mighty 
sweep of the telescope, we see these innumerable 
fleets of stars, as a universe dependent upon some 
central star. Twenty-six of these are already dis- 
covered, but only one in Ursa Major. Multiplied 
by our near approach by millions of magnitudes, 
how exceedingly grand this " island universe " 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 63 

must appear. The constellation off to our right is 
Virgo, with angel wings and dressed in celestial 
splendor. Upon her head may be seen the wonder 
of wonders so often seen elsewhere, viz: that of 
two or three great suns revolving in close proximi- 
ty around each other. Just before us and a little 
to the left, is Leo — the Lion. .He has his cub, the 
lesser Leo, close by his side, and is adorned with a 
majesty of stars. In his breast and neck a belt of 
the most magnificent stars give the perfect outline 
of a sickle, and his baby lion has two grand clus- 
ters, one near his heart and lungs and the other 
clenched by both his paws, by which his attitude 
indicates an immediate attack upon the terrible 
Hydra, who precedes him a little, and carries in his 
hissing mouth and exalted head a brilliant constel- 
lation of flaming Suns. We cannot stop to num- 
ber these Suns for it would take a lifetime to do so, 
and then the magnitudes are so vast, that we now, 
in this life, can obtain no conception of their won- 
derful majesty. Off to our left as we are now trav- 
eling the equatorial line, we can see the constella- 
tion of Cancer, and also that of the Coins Minor— 
the lesser Dog. This latter is a beautiful constel- 
lation of magnificent stars, above which we discov- 
er Gemini, or the two beautiful twin babies, whose 



64 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

heads are adorned with the glory of the stars. 
Hersliel describes it, "like gazing into a casket of 

gems/' 

Our last constellation as we pass on is the Uni- 
corn. After looking a moment at the beautiful 
colored stars so apparent in this nebulae, we arrive 
at our journey's end, the constellation of the grand 
and majestic Orion. We have now crossed the 
Heavens from Arcturus to Orion, millions of tril- 
lions of miles in our rapid express train of thought, 
and have only looked to wonder, to be more than 
amazed at the " glory of the stars," keeping all the 
time regulated by the facts revealed to us through 
the telescope. 

"Cans't Thou loose the bands of Orion." Job, 3S-31, 

We mentioned that many of the stars were 
double Suns, revolving around each other as our 
Moon revolves around the Earth. Only here we 
have suns of unknown magnitude revolving around 
each other, as in Lyra, we, with the naked eye, see 
only one star, but with the telescope we see two 
great suns, in close proximity to each other, pas- 
sing around each other in awful grandeur. As 
before remarked, we can discover no disk, so we can- 
not tell the exact size of these brilliant orbs. You 
see in the dark, the headlight of a coming Engine. 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 65 



11 is a great blaze, but you cannot tell exactly how 
many inches it is across, for you can discover no 
disk ; it is simply a blaze. So of these far off stars 
when seen through a telescope. 

Orion has seven suns of vast magnitude revolv- 
ing around each other in one grand whole. Who 
bounds their orbits ( Who keeps this vast cluster 
of orbs in motion? What "bands" encircle this 
whole — this Orionis? 

Finite mortals may well represent themselves 
as "dust and ashes" in the presence of Him who 
alone can " loose the bands of Orion." In this 
whole, beams forth the seven prismatic colors, in 
the rainbow light of God's myriad worlds, balanced 
and held in Heaven's glorious arc, notwithstand- 
ing Job and Abraham and John and Stephen have 
disappeared from the world of matter, and dust 
has returned to dust. Still the great question re- 
mains unanswered by any king or potentate, 
none can say u I can loose the bands of Orion;" 
I can take out of this whole, one sun ; I can break 
these bands whenever I please." 

Whoever discovers the majesty of God's works, 
will not be likely to make him like to mortals 
—fickle, frail, transient. "Thou thoughtest I was 
altogether such a one as thyself,"— Ps. 50-21, 



66 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

only applies to those who love to dwell in pitia- 
ble darkness. u The Heavens declare the glory of 
God and the firmament showeth His handiwork." 

Orion is one of the grandest of the celestial 
groups, and here let our chariot of thought wait 
with patience the will of our great and grand Mas- 
ter, and ask ourselves, are we the children of the 
Highest, and are these starry skies to be the home 
of the saints of all ages ? 

Our next journey will be to the constellation 
of Taurus, to visit that beautiful group, the Seven 
Sisters— Pleiades. 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 67 



CHAPTER VIII. 
Ohio x. 

We are now stopping at Orionis — Orion — called 
Orionis because there are many orbs, all rolling 
around each other in this grand whole. The out- 
line of Orion is marked by a parallelogram of four 
great Suns. Betelgeuse is a red star of great beau- 
ty and brilliancy — a star of the first magnitude, 
and with Bellatrix, Saiph and Rigel, form a beau- 
tiful triangle, which is indeed, only a climax or 
vertex of another triangle composed of stars, of 
which Betelgeuse is one of the most brilliant. 
Thus we see that this noted and radiant star, rep- 
resents a point in both the parallelogram and the 
triangle of Orionis. .Then only a little distance off 
and near the centre of this parallelogram, are a 
cluster of stars, supposed to form the outlines of 
the belt of Orion, or the u bands of Orion."— Job, 
38-31. These bands appear double ; one, in the ap- 
pearance of burnished silver, and still farther out 
and aloof from the silver belt, is another broad 



68 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

belt, like unto burnished gold. These double 
bands were referred to of God, as marvelous won- 
ders, and Job invited to investigate, if he consid- 
ered himself as equal to God in astronomical 
knowledge. "Cans't thou loose the bands of 
Orion?" 

The constellation of Orion is represented by a 
furious hunter, with a club in his hand, madly en- 
gaged in conflict with Tarsus— the Bull — in whose 
breast the beautiful Pleiades is found. If the rea- 
der will, on or about the 10th of January, look di- 
rectly overhead, he will obtain a grand view of 
Orion. That very bright star almost vertical, is in 
the right arm of the hero, midway between the 
armpit and the elbow ; then follow off to the left a 
few degrees, and you will see three stars of the 
second magnitude ; these are in the cheek of the 
hunter. One of these stars forms the point of the 
parallelogram. Then turn your atttention ten de- 
grees south, and you will see a cluster of four stars ; 
these are in the left foot of^Orion, as it is raised to 
crush the head of Lupus. Then parallel with the 
first line down, a few degrees back, you see a bright 
yellow star in the thigh of the mighty hero, and 
parallel the same distance south, and you obtain 
the bounds of the parallelogram. About midway 



V TRIP TO THE SKIES. 69 

up the giant's bydy, are seen the rolling, burning 
suns above mentioned. 

In the left limb of Orion, a little above the 
knee, you will discover the stars commonly known 
by the name of u Yard and Ell. 11 It is supposed to 
mean a Flemish yard, which is three-quarters of 
one of our yards, and an English Ell, which is five 
quarters of a yard. The yard is of vast importance 
in measuring distances across the Heavens, for 
each of the three stars composing the Ell, are just 
three degrees apart, and by retaining these distan- 
ces in the eye, the student can easily ascertain all 
distances on the planisphere of the heavens. 

Now please look a moment at the u Yard and 
Ell; 11 catch the distance in the eye, (three degrees 
apart) and then we will journey on, thanking 
Orion for the yard stick by which we can measure 
distances from one star to another without astro- 
nomical aparatus. 

It is millions of miles on a tangent line south- 
east across the Earth's elliptic from the brilliant 
suns in the face of Orion, to the mighty cluster be- 
tween the horns of Tarsus. But millions of miles 
in our chariot, is not more than afew rods on arail- 
way train, so we can soon climb up to view the bril- 
liancies of suns in gorgeous colors, for where dou- 



70 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

ble triple,quadruple or septuple stgxs are found, all 
the seven prismatic colors can be seen. On this 
account the grandeur of Orion is incomprehensi- 
ble. But the Heavens are full of wonders, and 
our eternity of being is only adequate to the mighty 
research. 

In passing onward to meet the mighty Taurus, 
whose horns are exceedingly high and whose fero- 
cious appearance we should think would daunt 
the heroic Orion, we are greatly astonished to know 
that in the head of this monster Bull — Taurus — 
is Aldebaran, the star of all stars; the great center 
around which, many of our astronomers be- 
lieve, all the systems in our astronomical universe 
radiates. If so here is the centre of one hundred 
and seventeen million systems, and our solar sys- 
tem perhaps the least of all. These masses of worlds, 
these associations of planets, are all in motion 
around our present point of observation, and even 
this great centre is in ceaseless motion. 

Let us step aboard our train of thought and 
visit the wonderful Aldebaran, and contemplate 
the majesty of this mighty centre. Now if our so- 
lar system revolves around this central star, it re- 
quires, at the terrible speed of 86,000 miles per sec- 
ond, (the speed that light travels) the long, long 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



period of eighteen million years to complete a sing- 
le revolution. Is there not a beauty, majesty and 
grandeur in the contemplation of the u glory of the 
stars T 

Could we for a moment realize this grandeur, 
this beauty, and associate ourselves with God as 
our Father and the heavens as our celestial man- 
sion through Christ, the great Redeemer, how 
cheering it would make the study of astronomy ! 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Aldebaeaist. 

If the majesty of mind is to be found in the 
ennobling contemplation of the magnitudes and 
motions, the brilliancy of colors and the handi- 
work of God as our Father in the systems and 
galaxies of the heavens, how dark must have been 
the age when mythology had its triumph! Then 
the height of intellectual imagination is recorded 
as follows: 

" Orion was a famous hunter. Becoming enam- 
ored of Merope, he desired to marry her. (Enopion, 
her father, opposing the choice, took a favorable 
opportunity, and put out the eyes of the unwel- 
come suitor. The blinded hero followed the sound 
of Cyclop's hammer until he came to Vulcan's 
forge. He, taking pity, instructed Kedalion to 
conduct him to the abode of the sun. 

" Placing his guide on his shoulder, Orion pro- 
ceeded to the east, and, at a favorable place, 

4 Climbing up a narrow gorge, fixed his blank eves upon the sun.' 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. ; > 



"The healing beams restored him to sight. 

"As a punishment for having profanely boasted 
that he was able to conquer any animal the earth 
could produce, he was bitten in the heel by a scor- 
pion. Afterward, Diana placed him among the 
stars, where Sirius and Brocyon, his dogs, follow 
him, the Pleiades fly before him, and far remote 
is the Scorpion by whose bite he perished." 

We need only in contrast to quote, 

ki Cans't thou loose the bands of Orion? 11 Job, 38-31. 

How cheering to realize that the next race 
above us — the angels — are the managers of these 
ceaseless activities, and that so perfect is their 
mechanical skill that no earthly time-piece can be 
more exact, and though change is rung out on 
every peal of earthly progress, yet the stars appear 
and fail not; they hurry on but do not collide. 

Here we can behold the myriad Cherubim of 
the skies, giving glory to God in the activities of 
life force, while they manage these material magni- 
tudes, and if a convoy of angels are commissioned 
to visit this mundane orb for the instruction or 
relief of God's beloved children, they with instant 
flight reach our shores and sometimes say: u O, 
Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the 
words that I speak unto thee and stand upright, 



74 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

for unto thee am I sent," and then with equal fleet- 
ness leave us and are gone. Who but these, govern 
these mighty fleets of stars that twinkle in their 
distant glory ? Who ? 

At Aldebaran, we can behold the greatest 
activities that we have ever beheld since we left 
the many mansions of Glory. 

Just to think of this vastness of worlds which 
astronomers have calculated! Of course, exactness 
of count could hardly be expected, yet they, with 
their means and methods of astronomical exact- 
ness, can arrive at conclusions with so much cer- 
tainty as to announce such stupendous centers. 

Dr. J. G. Steele remarks in reference to the 
appearance of the sidereal skies as follows: 

" Could we cross the Gulf of space beyond Nep- 
tune, the stars now so familiar to us would look 
strangely enough in their new groupings. As one, 
in riding through a forest, sees the trees appar- 
ently increase in size and open up to view before 
him, w T hile they decrease in size and close up 
behind him, forming clusters and groups which 
constantly change as he is passing along; so as 
our earth travels with, the solar system on its 
immense sidereal journey, the stars will grow larger 
and brighter in front, while those behind us will 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES 75 

appear smaller and dimmer. Since in addition to 
this, the stars themselves are in motion, with vary- 
ing: velocity and in different directions, the con- 
stellations must change still more rapidly; so, as 
ultimately to transform entirely the appearance of 
the heavens. In time the 'Bands of Orion" will be 
loosened and the 'Seven Sisters' will glide apart 
into remote space. Such are the distances, how- 
ever, that, although these movements have been 
going on constantly, yet, since the creation of man 
no variation has occurred that is perceptable, save 
to the watchful astronomer. Nothing in nature is 
as invariable as the stars. They are the standards 
of time. Myriads of years must elapse before new 
star maps will be required." 

Looking from Aldebaran, we see away yonder 
in the constellation of the Swan, a star which 
seems to be a cluster center. It is 61-0ygnia. Is it 
a single, double or quadruple star ? It is to us per- 
haps the nearest cluster centre. Now behold it in 
its full blaze; it is a double star, and is, with all its 
surroundings, moving through space at the incom- 
prehensible velocity of 86,000 miles per second. 
How vast its magnitude! The diameter across 
this double star is not less than three . billions of 
miles — it is larger than the orbit of our vast solar 



76 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

system and more than five hundred billions of 
miles away. Who can comprehend the majesty 
and glory of this double Star ? 

Here the glorified of God's angels superintend 
the motions of this vast whole, in harmony with 
His will who bounds and fills and equals all. 

Let us look again away, away to the constella- 
tion of Lyra — the Harp. There in brilliant splen- 
dor shines in ceaseless glory the planet Vega, 
which we might have mistaken for a single star; 
but to our astonishment it is a binary (double) star, 
and a double binary. One great sun revolving 
around another great sun, and these revolving 
around the others in one vast blaze. Four -great 
suns in one flame of incandescent burning hydro- 
gen with a brilliancy equal to twelve thousand of 
such suns as the sun that apparently rises and sets 
every twenty-four hours — our sun. 

Here is a cluster center, around which groups 
of systems of thousands of revolving stars are radi- 
ating in harmony of motion incomprehensibly 
grand ! 

Now, this cluster center is undoubtedly one of 
the 117,000,000 fleets of stars throughout the via 
Lactea of our starry universe, as we gaze upon it 
from Aldebaran. 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 77 

We are now in the constellation of Taurus, 
and as the u Seven Sisters "— u Seven Stars"— Ple- 
iades, is only a short distance away, and in the 
same constellation, we will allow T Orion to confront 
Taurus with his huge club, while we rest from our 
journeying, and then we will visit Pleiades. 

" Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades?" — Job 38-31. 



78 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



CHAPTER X. 

Alcyone. 



Who formed these nebulae, wondrous skies, 
Where twinkling gems' in glory rise. 

My Father. 

Who bids me look for glory, where, 
And says my future home is there. 

My Father. 
Who spans the heavens, who tills the sky, 
From Nadir up to Zenith high. 

My Father. 
Who in the skies prepares a home, 
And bids his earth-born children come. 

My Father. 
In rapturous thought "who bids me look, 
And read my name iri life's fair book. 

My Father. 
O blessed home, O sweet abode, 
O may I share thy love, O God, 

My Father. 



Aldebaran is a fiery red star of the first magni- 
tude and is really the right eye of Tar us; and is it 
not a most venerable eye. We should hardly 
think Orion could ever expect to put out the Bull's 
eye, even though he holds a mighty club. 

It might be well for us now at so vast a center, 
to scan well the heavens in every direction. 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 75 

There are many readers of this Trip to the 
Skies, who have read of the beautiful maiden, 
chained to a rock for her determined virtue, and 
how she was rescued by her lover just as the 
sea monster had opened his mouth to destroy her 
— Andromeda. There are incomprehensible won- 
ders connected with this constellation, and it mat- 
ters but little to us as to the myth of ancient 
Greece, or whether Andromeda was saved by Per- 
seus or Orion, or whether the chain that held her 
to the rock had gold or silver links, or whether 
Perseus actually possessed Pluto's helmet, which 
rendered him invisible to the serpent he destroyed; 
nor will we weep with the parents of Andromeda, 
as they saw the huge serpent open his mouth to 
swallow up their child, while they were powerless 
to render any aid; nor shall we shout when Perseus 
brings down his glittering sword and severs the 
serpent's head from his body. No. This mythol- 
ogy we take for what it is worth, but the constella- 
tion of Andromeda is still in the northern heavens, 
and looking through the eye of Taurus, we can get 
a glimpse of the majesty of the heavens by the sur- 
vey of this constellation. 

Lest some of our readers think we draw largely 
from fiction and imagination in our "Trip," let me 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



call your attention to tlie remarks of Prof. Bond, 
of the Cambridge observatory. But first please 
remember that all nebulae (clusters of stars) are 
divided into six classes, viz: Elliptic, Annular, 
Spiral, Planetery, Irregular Nebulae and Nebulous 
stars. 

The first, the Elliptic, are the most abundant 
of any in the heavens. Under this classification 
Andromeda, more than a thousand years ago, 
became one of the greatest and is indeed visible to 
the naked eye. Prof. Bond remarks: 

"If we suppose this nebulae to be one continu- 
ous bed of stars, of different sizes for its entire 
extent, it must comprise the enormous number of 
thirty millions." 

Says Dr. Steele: "The distance of such nebu- 
lae from the earth entirely passes our comprehen- 
sion. Some astronomers have estimated that a ray 
of light requires 800,000 years to span the gulf that 
intervenes. Imagination wearies itself in the 
attempt to understand these figures. They only 
teach us some of the limitless expanses of that 
space in which God is working out the mysterious 
problem of creation." 

It is indeed an easy matter to write down a 
whole column of figures and to comprehend this 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. Si 

vastness of numerals would be simply impossible, 
but if we are immortal beings I care not how long 
the colums of numerals may be, you and I will live 
to hear the last year's record called off, whether it 
be 30 or 300 millions of years hence. So vast is 
life, 

There have as yet been but four annular 
nebulas discovered. These are in the form of a 
ring. Lyra, the Harp, has one, first seen by Her- 
schel, and having a central nebulae, much after the 
appearance of a hoop over which apiece of gauze 
was suspended. As seen through Lord Ross' great 
telescope, the filmy parts of the nebulae are real 
twinkling stars, which if no further from the earth 
than 61-Cygnia, the diameter of each must be at 
least two thousand million miles. It is very prob- 
able that the nebulae stars far exceed this distance. 
Then if w^e continue to survey the skies in refer- 
ence to " spiral" nebulae, we shall find the most 
brilliant in -Canes Venatici. If any one has ever 
seen the spiral antics, as shown in our holiday fire- 
works, they can faintly conceive of a heavenly dis- 
play as is apparent through astronomical teles- 
copes. "It consists of brilliant spirals, sweeping 
outward from a central neucleus, and all overspread 
with a multitude of stars." 



82 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

" Irregular nebulae" are those that can have no 
definite shape or form. Some writers liken them 
to broken clouds of every possible form. There is 
one of these near our present outlook in the south- 
ern horn of Taurus, another in the sword handle 
of Orion. 

Well did the Psalmist observe, "the heavens 
declare the glory of God," especially if we look 
at these singular nebulae as seen through the tele- 
scope, their measureless distance from us — Cen- 

tauri, for instance, placed at 42,800,000,000 of miles 

« 

away. Writes a great astronomer: 

u But owing to the almost infinite depth of the 
abyss of the heavens at which these nebulae exist, 
thousands of years, perhaps thousands of centuries 
would be necessary to reveal any perceptible move- 
ment." (Gruillemin.) 

Let us now leave Aldebaran and pass on a few 
millions of miles triangularly across the Earth's 
orbit as seen on the planisphere of the heavens and 
we are among the " sweet influences of Pleiades." 

Many thonsand years ago the u sweet influ- 
ences" of these seven stars threw their rays of 
light across the track of the patient Job, and per- 
haps he, like ourselves, beheld only the light of 
these stellar orbs without the knowledge of any 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 83 

"influence" at all, permeating, controlling and reg- 
ulating vast systems throughout the high arch of 
heaven. It would seem that since these stars have 
been seen and counted, one of the number has 
stepped down and out, leaving at present only 
six that are visible to the naked eye; but tradition 
informs us that there were originally seven. One 
of the principal stars of this constellation is Alcy- 
one, which has been considered by many the great 
grand center of the milky way. Whether this 
opinion originated from the word " influences," or 
from actual astronomical phenomena we are 
unable to say. It is a fact unquestionable, that 
Alcyone is a mighty star, and by some strange affin- 
ity the Pleiades a*re associative, and in harmony 
revolve around some common center, or other sys- 
tems revolve around Alcyone. These lights in the 
heavens are so far away that their distances from 
each other may indeed be vast, while to us they 
seem to be in immediate proximity. Still the ques- 
tion of the Almighty, "canst thou bind the sweet 
influences of Pleiades" is important. He that 
knew acknowledged an influence far out in its 
attractive power — an influence that He alone could 
"bind" — an influence genial, generous, "sweet," 
all-pervading, all-affecting, all-controlling. 



84 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

If so it must be that Aldebaran is not the 
central orb of the heavenly galaxy, but Alcyone. 
Prof. Maudler, of Prussia, arrived at the conclus- 
ion, after careful study and by the aid of every 
conceivable appliance, that the science of astron- 
omy has at its command that Alcyone is the grand 
nebulae center and that Pleiades has this honor. 
Be this as it may, let us visit Alcyone. But some 
one will ask how large across is this mighty star, 
and how far away. Figures will do us no good in 
this matter of distances. It is supposed to be not 
less than five thousand three hundred and eighty 
billion, two thousand million of miles away, and 
Prof. Maudler thinks it would take a ray of light 
with its awful fleetness 587 years to reach us. 

These masses of worlds, these associations of 
planets, are all in motion around our present post 
of observation, at least the constellation of Taurus 
carries off the prize either in Aldebaran or in 
Alcyone, and we think the testimony from a bibli- 
cal standpoint favors Pleiades — Alcyone. If a 
glass could be discovered that would give us a disk 
instead of a blaze we might readily measure the 
diameter of any or all the heavenly orbs; but such 
is not attainable, hence diameters are all guess 
work where a disk does not obtain. 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 85 

Can we possibly feel at home so far away as 
Alcyone, and after a little rest pass on to the south- 
ern skies and behold the emblem cross of redemp- 
tion with stars of various colors, like as Herschel 
remarks, u a brilliant casket of jewels" standing 
in the heavens, the admiration of the cherubic 
legions of glory? We will try. 



86 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Alcyone. 

O glorious arch of heaven, 

Display celestial ; 
The golden gates away — 
From things terrestrial, 
Begotten God, of Thee — 
Beyond our sphere of thought, 
Twinkling in joyous glee, 

Still not forgot. 

Ah! See the mighty cross — 
Exalted high, 
With rainbow glory, 
O'er its southern sky, 

What twinkling gems, 

Mow bright they shine. 
It's glory's shrine 
Seraph behold, it's thine, 

and mine, 
T'adore the Sacrifice Divine. 

We were stopping at Alcyone, in the Constel- 
lation of Pleiades, gazing in awe at the heavenly 
spiral display of Canes Venatici, which so over- 
whelmed us that we begged for rest; but now let 
us proceed. 

We are so accustomed to look at the stars and 
constellations of the northern circum polar skies, 
that to be interested in an investigation of the 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



unseen of the southern, may require a more 
extended journey than we wish to undertake; still 
we believe our readers will journey with us, away 
across the "star-spangled" vault, that thereby they 
may obtain a wider scope of knowledge than it is 

>ible to attain from actual observation, which 
few, indeed, have time and means necessary to 
such an undertaking. Some half century ago, 
Kessell, the great astronomer, undertook the hercu- 
lean task of arraying the southern stellar orbs in 
a catalogue of positions and magnitudes. His 
field included all the stars between 45 degrees 
north declination and 15 degrees south, and down 
to the ninth magnitude. 

In this arrangement he included all stars to 
one-fifteenth the brightness of those beheld by 
natural vision. 

Prof. Bessell carried on this great and success- 
ful survey of the Southern Heavens from the year 
1821 to 1833, in which he made 72,000 observations, 
locating 62,380 stars of different magnitudes. 

Since then, these have been carefully compiled 
and their catalogues published by the Observatory 
Imperial of Russia. These observations have been 
of incalculable value to modern Astronomers. 

Near the close of the last century, La Lande, a 



88 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

French astronomer, undertook to locate all the 
stars between the north pole — Polaris — and the 
southern tropic, making for this purpose 47,000 
observations. These were computed and published 
at the expense of the British Government, but the 
superiority of the instruments of modern times 
rendered the labors of Prof. Bessell essentially 
more important. 

Prof. Argelander, who gained his popularity 
from Prof. BesselFs instruction, made a more thor- 
ough exploration of the stellar skies as " zone " 
observations. 

In the circumpolar he included from 45 degrees 
north to 80, and from 15 to 31 degrees south; in all, 
about 50,000 observations, overcoming difficulties 
that had totally discouraged other astronomers. 

Gilliss, of our own country, made many valu- 
able discoveries at Chili, and it has been hoped 
that his observations, embracing a series of zones, 
would be published by our government, notwith- 
standing the decease of the great astronomer. 

About 1860, the English astronomer, Prof. Car- 
rington, explored to the tenth degree from the 
north pole. 

Thus far, from 30 degrees south of the equator 
to the north pole has the heavens received the 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 89 

greater portion of all astronomical observations. 

Difficulties insurmountable have until recently 
hedged up the way towards a complete survey of 

tlit 1 southern skies, and these are by far the grand- 
est of the heavens. 

Navigators have, for a quarter of a century, 
remarked upon the grandeur and beauty of the 
surroundings of the south pole; but no nation has 
seemed at all interested in its grand survey, and 
from ship-board a meager observation only could 
be taken. As early as the beginning of the six- 
teenth century, navigators discovered brilliantly 
illuminated patches of what seemed to be clouds, 
and named them " Magellanic clouds," as well as 
others of dense blackness, called "coal sacks." 

Dr. B. A. Gould, from his observations in Cor- 
dova, Argetine Republic, remarks of the grandeur 
of the southern constellations, " The glory of the 
southern sky near the Cross is indescribable. 
There, where the Milky Way is crossed by the 
thick stream of bright stars, which skirt this river 
of light its brilliancy is wonderfully increased, and 
it exhibits a magnificence unequaled in any other 
portion of the heavens." 

And now reader, we at Alcyone are ten 
degrees north of the equator, and from hence to 



9 o A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

tlie constellation of the Cross, near the southern 
pole, is a vast, vast journey, and the perils, of such 
a trip remind us of the crossing of the river of 
death. Through this chilly stream we all must 
pass, and happy shall we be, if — 

"On the Cross uplifted high, 
Where the Saviour deigned to die." 

we are permitted to behold our blessed Lord, as a 
" Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," 

We, in our fleet journey across the heavens, 
will pass so many grand and magnificent equator- 
ial constellations that should receive more than a 
passing notice, that we hardly know as it is best 
to pass silently by these wonders. 

Some conception of the vastness of our journey 
across the heavens may be obtained by a remem- 
brance of the computed distance from the Earth 
to the Constellation Centaur, which is nearest to 
the brilliant Cross, and which is represented by 
the vastly overwhelming numerals of 42,800,000,- 
000 of miles away. 

Then, to take into consideration our distance 
at Alcyone from the earth we inhabit, we are lost 
in the vast abyss of space, which seems, indeed, 
boundless. 

In order to successfully reach our destination 



A TRIP to Till* SKIES. 



(the Southern Cross and Altar), we had better fol- 
low the earth's orbit from east to west, a few mil- 
lion of miles, until we arrive at the Solstitial Colure, 
and then follow that line across the heavens to the 
South Pole, as a direct line is the nearest path 
from one object to another. 

Tejat, a grand and brilliant star, welcomes us 
as we reach the intersections of the earth's orbit 
and the Solstitial Colure. A little further on and 
you discover the constellation Gemini, or the 
Twins; but we are on a southern trip, and cannot 
stop to inquire as to the mythology of Castor or 
Pollux. Here we pass Betelguese, a brilliant star 
in the right arm of Orion, whose grandeur we 
have previously contemplated. 

And now we have crossed the great equatorial 
line of the heavens. That constellation on our 
left is Lepus — the Hare; the one on our right, Can is 
Major— the Greater Dog. 

We are now passing the beak of Columbia 
Noachi — Noah's Dove. Ah! the olive branch is a 
brilliant cluster of stars, that no doubt shone out 
on the deep flood of waters as brilliantly then as 
now. Here we pass the Telescopian, a constella- 
tion that represents the telescope with which 
Herschel surveyed the heavens. That grand con- 



92 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

stellation of stars a little to our right and in front 
of us is distinguished by the name of Peacock, 
and when covered with the Magellanic Clouds, 
exhibits a grandeur and glory faintly conceived of 
by those who have never made astronomy their 
study; and here is the Ara — the Altar from which 
the Magellanic Clouds constantly develop the Holy 
burning incense, that, as a sweet odor, vivifies the 
distant Cross, near the equinoxial Colure. 

Just above the Altar you will discover two 
vastly bright stars, revolving around each other, 
covered as by a rainbow of incandescent light 
from the Magellanic Clouds, that devolop the 
uprush of continued incense, reaching far out 
towards the Starry Cross; and there is no night 
there, for these perpetually evolve an undiminish- 
able glory far exceeding the brightness of 10,000 
suns. 

How strange that the heavens should so sym- 
bolize the Jewish Altar as found in the temple of 
God, whose "Shekinah" never ceased in its burn- 
ing, as of incense before the throne of the God of 
Abraham and of Israel. And can there be coal- 
black clouds between the Altar and the Cross? 
Can these brilliant skies be darkened by Perni- 
gram Clouds— u Coal Sacks," as mariners call 



A TRIP TO THE SKI] 93 

them— Anthracinus Clouds. So it appears near 
this constellation. 

We will stop at Beta, in the Constellation of 
the Altar, amid the perpetual brilliancy of light 

that surrounds it, and humbly kneel in adoration 
and wonder, and place upon this hallowed symbol 
our incense of holy devotion to the Father of Spir- 
its, whose children we are, and whose hand has 
led us far out to behold the matchless wonders of 
the skies. 



94 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



CHAPTER XII. 

To the Altar. 

If we proceed from the constellation of Hart- 
ley's Quadrant at the South Pole, and travel along 
the Solstitial colure ninety degrees, we shall reach 
the Southern Altar — our last resting place. 

Now look abroad and grasp the skies in this 
almost unexplored region. From the South Pole 
at right angles with the Solstitial Colure and 
ninety degrees along the Equatorial Colure, you 
will easily discover the Southern Cross, being 
nearly a triangle of distances — Pole, Altar and 
Cross. 

Having stopped at the Altar to pay our ador- 
ations to Deity, let us as His children arise and 
behold our Father's glory bedecked symbol, which 
no genius less than the Supreme Architect of the 
skies could devise and so grandly adorn. 

Alpha, Beta and Gamma, three brilliant stars, 
stretch a perfect line over our heads, around which 
and continuous with said line of stars, is a rain- 
bow wreath in heaven's prismatic colors beauti- 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 05 

fully entertwined. Below the central star of this 
wreath are two brilliant stars in ceaseless rotation 
around each other, fringed with spiral phenomena, 
and reducing the Magelaine flame to a pot of 
incense, flowing away toward the Cross in contin- 
uous elliptical grandeur. 

Were this single wreath of star-decked glory 
all we behold of the Altar of stars, we could say — 

v - Enough, my gracious Lord, 
Let faith triumphant cry; 
My soul can on this promise rest, 

My (senses) on it die" — 

but this is only a small part of the wonders of the 
Altar. 

This stellar emblem has a cornice of stars, so 
to speak, surrrouiidiiig it, and forming a brilliant 
purple flame, from which a gauze-like scintillation 
reveals the four sides of the Altar resting upon a 
pillar of stars, every star appearing in sublime 
imitation of the description given by the Revelator 
of the foundation stone of the new Jerusalem. 
(See Rev. 11: 19-21.) 

In gazing at this, the telescopic observer is lost 
in the indescribable wonder of the southern skies, 
and steps back, like Herschel, with an u Oh! won- 
derful casket of jewels! indescribable glory! mar- 
velous wonders of the skies!" etc. Had we in our 



96 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

possession the southern portion of South America, 
on which we could in safety erect a telescopic 
tower, our observations need not be so clothed with 
amazement; but from ship-board view, it is won- 
derful that the old ocean would cease her motion 
so long as to catch the glimpses of glory so grandly 
unfolded by astronomers. 

The seven prismatic colors, viz., red, blue, 
orange, yellow, indigo, green, and violet, are, in 
this constellation, so brilliantly decorative, that no 
artist can imitate these wonders, as they are really 
indescribable. It surpasses the skill of any master 
of the fine or decorative arts in its grandeur and 
in its glory. 

We almost wonder if this is not the grand 
telephone office from whence the ceaseless prayers 
of the saints are repeated in the ear of the Lord 
of Sabbaoth, and from whom we catch the answer 
in the known voice of the Master, u A stranger will 
they not follow, for they know not the voice of 
strangers?" Surely, if there is a symbol of vast 
import, it must be the Altar; for upon that hal- 
lowed place the hosts of the millions redeemed by 
grace have laid their every sacrifice, and should 
not Deity honor with indescribable glory a symbol 
so radiant with pardon, peace, and joy? 



A TRIP TO THE SK l!> 97 

Some people lookal the stars as they do at an 
apple tree full of delirious fruit. Ah! the fruit is 
all: the Creator's glory, nothing. To such persons 
"Our Trip" is a meaningless fable; but to Christ- 
ians, and here let me explain my meaning of the 
word "Christians": Those who see in God a Father, 
and grasp the idea of a child** rights amidst the 
starry constellations of heaven. To such, "Our 
Trip" will be a welcome prelibation of the coming 
glory of the great God. . 

If this starry Altar is not the grand telephonic 
center from whence the prayers of the saints com- 
mingle in celestial harmonies, where can there be 
found another center so grand in all heaven's high 
pavillions; from whence, if stripped of all malevo- 
lence, hypocrisy, doubt, or deception, the inner soul, 
sinking into the eternal changeless, can grasp the 
glory of God's grand symbol, the starry Altar. As 
the drowning man grasps the outflung rope, hardly 
aware which is safety, the rope, or the vessel, or 
the mighty seamen who are dragging him on board, 
so we, gazing at this wonderful "Casket of Jew- 
els." can only with adoration exclaim, the Master 
fe calling from labor to refreshment. 

The grandeur of this constellation is vastly 
augmented by a careful survey of its decora- 



98 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

tions — the millions of star-gems surrounding it, 
of exceeding beauty and brilliancy. It is, indeed, 
one of the few constellations of the heavens that 
at all resembles the prototype from which the con- 
stellation is named; and this is so perfect that 
thousands of thousands who had any just concep- 
tions of an altar would almost intuitively exclaim, 
u The Altar! see the Altar!" Stars of every color, 
so artistically blended, flood its walls on every 
side, and embellish and illuminate its exceeding 
altitude to such an extent that language fails to 
give only the faintest conception of the reality. It 
is, indeed, the star-adorned Altar of the Most 
High, whose thoughts of grandeur so far exceed 
ours as do his ways in the unexplored heavens 
exceed those of his earth-begotten children, who, 
with amazement and wonder, often exclaim, ■ * Can 
the teachings of Astronomy be a reality — a fact?" 
Let us now climb up from star to star, from 
gem to gem, from jewel to jewel, until we can, 
from its towering height, observe clearly the 
blended rainbow hues of its symbolic incense, and 
gazing far across the heavens, catch the form of 
the Cross, and the direction we must take to reach 
it, and haste to that grandest of all which is grand 
in the heavens — the Cross of Redemption. And 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 99 

now, fellow- travelers, let us enter the current ot 
incense in our train of thought, leaving upon the 
Altar our oblations and thank offerings, and hasten 
across the unknown to the emblem cross of the 
stars. \ 

Away yonder is the constellation named Cen- 
taur — a beast and man united; the archer and the 
lion; a very strange and meaningless chimera of 
some disturbed imagination; but they had to name 
it something, so they called it Centaur. That one 
a little further on is called the King's Oak; but 
yonder see the starry Cross of Redemption. 

It seems to be so far across this triangle, and 
such an unexplored wilderness of unnamed stars 
and constellations before us, that the imagination 
itself tires of the survey. But look! Yonder rises 
a u Coal Sack," an anthracinus cloud of densest 
darkness, of blackness, so awful, that we, like 
Moses at Sinai, are compelled to say, " I exceed- 
ingly fear and quake." It hastens across the 
heavens, and we cannot escape its gloom. Now, 
the seething fury of darkness is upon us; its roll- 
ing billows dash in frightful blackness in our 
faces; and dismay, without a pole star, compass, 
or ray of light to lift at all the gloom, is upon us. 

We were once, as our guide informed us, three 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



miles from daylight in the great Mammoth Cave 
of Kentucky, and he had all our lights extin- 
guished, so that we might sense the darkness, so 
terrible, so exceedingly black; there the friction 
match would light again our lamps, but not here. 
Whirling, sinking, rising; all is dark and black; 
no Altar in sight now — no crown, no cross; lost! 
lost! lost! Did you ever reflect on Gethsemane, 
where an Altar of sacrifice was occupied by a sin- 
gle victim, " sweating, as it were, great drops of 
blood," and how, on a subsequent day, the same 
victim upon the cross was visited by this dense 
anthracinus cloud ? There was no eclipse of the 
sun then, and philosophy could not explain the 
phenomenon. "It was dark from the sixth to the 
ninth hour," and then this anthracinus cloud 
returned to its native sky. But did you ever 
reflect that the agony in that darkness was intense? 
Forsaken, neglected, lost! "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabac- 
thani?" We now pass through, as all must who 
approach the Cross, this black cloud of darkened 
vision: "eyes, but cannot see; cannot see the king- 
dom of God." 

So now in our "Trip" all is dark, all is black- 
ness, all is peril. Our train has no track — our ship 
has no helm — our engine has no engineer. Black 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. to! 

chaos: M outer darkness" presides with awful aspect; 
boundless nothingness surrounds us on every side. 
( )h! how we need a guide — a deliverer — a Saviour. 
Ah, look! the Cross appears; the blackness has 
passed. We are approaching the wonder of won- 
ders — the Starry Cross. 

The Southern Cross we believe to be God's 
grand symbol upon a scale somewhat commen- 
surate with the purposes of eternal redemption, 
originating before the world was, and unfolding 
the seven attributes of God as a sublimely devel- 
oped whole, showing Himself to be a God of infi- 
nite mercy. No mind can fathom the depth of this 
celestial labyrinth, or say to him that formed it, 
why hast thou fashioned it thus? As visitors, we 
can survey this starry wonder, and content our- 
selves by remembering that Cherubim and Sera- 
phim, angels of might and power, may view this 
prototypic cross as heaven's great and grand sym- 
bol, and not as a few feet of a transverse wooden 
shaft. We shall endeavor to describe this "Casket 
of Jewels" erected of God (as seen in the southern 
skies) as the honored symbol of the sacrifice of the 
great Messiah — the wondrous prototypic cross of 
human redemption. We wish our readers also to 
remember that the southern Magellanic clouds of 



lo2 A TRIP TO THE SftlES. 

incandescent light visited once the hills of Judea 
on the night of the grand transfiguration of the 
Messiah — "a bright cloud overshadowed them" — 
and then it returned to its native sky, where, 
when human redemption ceases, the Starry Cross 
will forever glitter with its celestial scintillations. 



A TRIP TO 111 10 SKIES. I03 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The Starry Cross. 

home. 

And, Father, is that realm of light 

Our dear eternal home? 
Hast thou redeemed us through thy might? 

Wilt thou say, "Children, come?" 
Our finite minds would grasp the power — 

Thine all -creating word — 
That throws aside this shadowy hour, 

And brings us near to God. 
Then haste these darkened clouds away, 

Let brighter clouds arise, 
Till we behold eternal day 

Amidst celestial skies. 

We had just emerged from the blackness of 
that terrible anthracinus cloud, "Coal Sack," of 
the southern skies, and had caught the form of the 
Starry Cross; but we had neglected to locate the 
constellation of the Bird of Paradise or the Crown 
of Glory. These constellations are very beautiful, 
and are to our right as we pass in a triangular line 
from the Altar of the Cross. 

On, with the velocity of thought, our train is 
passing objects that at first appear as fire-specks 
afar off, but now appear in grand proportions, and 



io 4 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

their majesty astonishes us greatly. Now, reader, 
stop and reflect a moment in reference to the prob- 
able character of the great God. There must be 
in his works some manifestations infinitely more 
grand than others; and it would be natural to sup- 
pose that, in some of His works, His declarative . 
glory might far excel those of minor creations. 
And, then, if a " Son is given" as an offering of 
God for the salvation of man, what should the 
heavens declare as co-eternal with such a sacrifice? 
Such a gift, so great, so grand, is the gift of God's 
only begotten Son. It is almost a law of nations to 
erect monuments of exceeding grandeur to those 
who have achieved the greatest type of magnanim- 
ity and devotion to the rulers they have served. 
And whoever suffered for others, " the just for the 
unjust," that he might develop one attribute of 
God, that in no other way could possibly be 
unfolded but by this sacrifice— the Christ of God. 
How could Mercy be revealed without an object, 
and of what value is an undeveloped attribute? 
God possesses seven attributes. Six of these need 
no negative: Light, Life, Justice, Love, Truth and 
Holiness need no association by which a necessity 
arises for a negative to co-exist; but Mercy must 
remain eternally concealed without a negative. 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. raj 

The plan of human pro-creation, in which the 
seven senses constitute the man mortal, and 
the seven attributes which constitute the man 
spiritual, with liability to a separation and decom- 
position of the mortal, involved in itself the devel- 
opment of God's attribute — Mercy — salvation from 
the condemnation of transgression through a Mes- 
siah. If, then, the mightiest of the mighty made 
the greatest of all sacrifices, surely the monument, 
the emblem of this sacrifice, must outreach, in 
glory, all others. 

We are now far past the utmost view of 
our little world; and on w r e haste with the velocity 
of thought towards the grand object of our jour- 
ney. But look! What is that u sea of glass," 
that vast plane of crystal rock, before us ? 
Ah! it is the Rock of Ages — the base upon 
which rests the Starry Cross. How exceed- 
ingly broad, how beautifully commingled with the 
loveliest colors the mind can grasp. This wonder- 
ful Rock is pure carbon, like brilliant diamonds, 
mingled with all the transparencies of quartz in 
every hue and color. Our finite conception can in 
no possible way measure the length or the breadth 
of the Rock of Ages. Here let us rest our train of 
thought and contemplate the vastness of our 



io6 a Trip to the skies. 

surroundings and the glory of the southern 
skies; for here, more than at any other place, 
a the heavens declare the glory of God." Our 
earth is vastly out of sight, while other wonders 
multiply in strange proportion. Well did the Reve- 
lator, John, call this Rock " a sea of glass, mingled 
with fire." To us it is a vast and beautiful plain 
of inwrought gems of sparkling glory. From 
hence rises the wonderful cross that far excels 
our highest conceptions of grandeur and display. 
The breadth of the upright shaft exceeds the 
diameter of the earth's orbit, and the heavens 
declare its glory; and the majesty of the suns com- 
posing it transcends the majesty of thought itself. 
It is not composed of a few rolling orbs, but of 
millions. High up they rise toward the eternal 
gates of glory in the splendor of "network, lily- 
work, and pomegranite," until we behold the 
upright shaft of the Cross as a cluster of jewels, 
and of all colors beautifully blended. Those two 
immense shafts of diamond rock that are beside 
the Cross of Stars and so exceedingly high, 
represent " strength and beauty," and are wonder- 
fully cleft asunder from top to bottom, exhibiting, 
in their beauty of colors, the rose of Sharon. 

" Rock of Ages, cleft for me ; 
Let me hide mvseif in Thee." 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 107 



If we bring oar telescope to aid us in looking 
upon and along the line of the Cross, we shall 
easily see the blood-red stars that tell of Him who 
was "bruised for our transgressions," especially 
the star representing the pierced side of the 
Adorable; and on a closer observation we shall be 
more than astonished to behold — 

"A fountain filled with blood, 
Drawn from ImmanuePs veins 1 ' — 

opened for sin and uncleanliness, outflowing from 
the foot of the Cross of Redemption. Could it be 
otherwise than that the eternal God, who possesses 
all power, all glory, all might, and whose love trans- 
cends, so to speak, His eternity? Could it be 
otherwise than that such an emblem as this must 
eternally appear in the heavens, when we take into 
consideration the fact that " God's love to His 
Son was infinitely intense, and that he had prom- 
ised to glorify His name above all other names— 
" the glory I had with thee before the world was V 
Oh! wonderful Rock of Ages, inseparable with 
jewels and gems in the angelic regions of eter- 
nity. And is this heaven ? No, indeed; it is heav- 
en's great dial of a single dispensation — that of 
grace. Time will pass away; but, like the pyra- 
mids of Egypt, these shafts of stars will remain as 



io8 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

an anchor to the soul forever and ever. If 
we look abroad, as now we may, over this 
transparent diamond sea, we shall behold an 
endless array of arbors, most exquisitely deco- 
rated with gems of translucent splendor and trees 
bearing heaven's own fruit and foliage; and a host 
of angels, all in delight at our meeting, and join- 
ing with us, as in Judea, in our songs of " peace on 
earth and good will to men." God has not left 
this Rock tenantless, nor the emblem of sacrifice 
unguarded; and while we look up we can sing — 

14 Burst, ye emerald gates, and bring 
To my raptured vision, 
All the ecstatic joys that spring 
Round this bright elysian." 

The Mirage. 

Here is, indeed, the mirage of Redemption, 
reflected back from the throne of God and the 
Lamb — u a lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world." 

Through this reflected grandeur we can see by 
faith a gauze-like form — a symbol Saviour— still 
extended upon the cross, and feel drawn from 
earth up to Him. u And I, if I be lifted up from 
the earth, will draw all men unto Me. 7 ' So we are 
drawn by the blood of the crucified one. 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 109 

We might ask if this form on the Starry Cross 
is the "real presence" of the Christ; and the 
mirage only will answer, Behold the great Creators 
grand symbol of eternal redemption — Christ on the 
cross. And we might further ask, What suffered 
and died upon the cross so human as to leave this 
faith-seen form amidst these scintillations of the 
cross? Ah! it was the senses of Jesus, so holy, so 
pure, as to constitute the celestial mind of Christ 
to be for sin an offering. Like our senses — our 
mind, that sleeps in the wardrobe of Christ, to be 
worn as a spotless garment at the resurrection of 
the just — so of Jesus, only He was the resurrection 
and the life, and w r e are in Him. 

Hence, we in this mirage — this symbol — may 
by faith behold Him; and looking, find life through 
His name. 

It is in the world's great mind to worship an 
image — a Mediator. Some worship Mahomet as 
this mediator; some the Ganges; some the tombs of 
the saints; some Juggernaut; but still the idea of 
a mediator, present or to come, finds an echo in the 
world's great mind. This may all have originated 
from this one universal command, viz., u Look 
unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be saved." 

So, if we can, in this mirage, behold the "Son 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



of Man lifted up," as did Moses lift up the brazen 
serpent in the wilderness, we, too, can be saved 
through His grace. 

This is man's adjuvant, and must so continue 
until the retribution of all things. The attributes 
of God in Christ withdrew at his death, leaving 
the pure — the holy — senses of Jesus a sacrifice for 
sin; a grand and holy sacrifice co-equal with man's 
great salvation. The symbol we here behold' 
"This is my body which I give for the life of the 
world," is the symbol of ■* the sleep in Jesus" so 
often referred to in the Scriptures; but we must 
not mistake this emblem for the real Christ. Some 
mistake the bread and wine in the Lord's last sup- 
per in the same manner. Hear Him: u I am in the 
Father, and the Father in Me." It is impossible, 
then, for a symbol to be the substance it represents. 
Here we behold, as did the children of Israel, the 
brazen serpent; and, although it was neither God 
nor a serpent, yet by looking at it health was 
restored; so of this human sacrifice, look and live. 

Our Lord and Master, in reference to penalties, 

remarked that certain sins " hath never forgiveness 

in this world, or the world to come." This implies 

•clemency even here, but no individual promise is 

made to any but those who believe. Here inside 



A TRIPTO THE SKIES, in 

these brilliant walls do we not behold snowy white 
robes? This is the wardrobe of the guest cham- 
ber, and all these robes have been washed and 
made wliite in the blood of the Lamb. 

They are the mental force, the mind, the seven 
senses of those that fell asleep in Jesus. The 
senses are invisible to themselves, but not to the 
attributes. The soul, through the seven attributes, 
can look upon the senses as do the senses upon the 
human body; they are the earthly white robe, 
pure and clean, ready for the coming of the bride- 
groom, but they are not the soul. 

These are not living realities, but mental forms, 
and only assume life again at the resurrection, 
when u mortality is swallowed up of life." 

This "Rock of Ages" is the Paradise of God 
for all believers — for all of the infant race, and for 
all of the translated ones. Here is the reception 
chamber for the church of the Most High, the 
glory-crowned summit of redemption; but yonder 
hangs the anthracinus cloud — the " Coal Sacks" of 
outer darkness — which evolve into black despair 
forever and ever. 

Let us, then, glance again at the cleft rock, at 
the guest chamber, the wardrobe, the decorations, 
the Starry Cross, and the ten thousand times ten 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



thousand happy ones in celestial arbors along the 
banks of the river of life, and then let us return 
to the dim starlight of modern astronomy, and 
what do we behold ? Only this: the heavens are 
everywhere lit up with the glory of the stars. 

In concluding our "Trip to the Skies," our 
readers will observe that we have closely followed 
astronomical discoveries and biblical allusions; not 
that we suppose the Bible to be an astronomical 
book, but in it is the truth, and no scientific dis- 
coverer can possibly unearth facts that God's 
great monitor overlooked. 

Hence, the reader's attention has been called 
to consider the two cloudy pillars that accompanied 
the children of Israel through the waters of the 
Red Sea; the one a bright, shining cloud (" Magel- 
lanic"), and the other an anthracinus ("Coal Sack") 
cloud of intense darkness— one that had once 
spread its impenetrable gloom over all Egypt — 
"darkness that could be felt." Also, at the Mount of 
Transfiguration the one, and at the cross the other; 
and that these clouds have always been associative 
with God's revelations to man. 

That it belongs to Christian astronomy to 
locate these clouds as they now appear near the 
Southern Cross and Altar. Since a " cloud received 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 113 

Him out of their sight" (Acts 1: 9), both the 
"Magellanic" and u Coal Sack" have remained in 
the southern skies, a wonder to a world of astrono- 
mers; and until the day that the heavens shall be 
aglow with this Magellanic flame and " outer dark- 
ness" reign in the far-off abyss of eternal night, 
these clouds will to our telescopes be visible. The 
reader has also been reminded of the fact that 
" mighty angels 77 fill the skies with their activities, 
that they are not mere trumpet-horns of the 
Almighty, but that their labors are needed in the 
skies, and that to us they are the blessed spiritual 
messengers of the great God; that when he brought 
His only begotten Son into the world, he said: 
"And let all the angels of God worship Him;' 7 so 
whom we worship they also worship, and with 
them the redeemed must enjoy ecstatic delight, 
whether gazing at the Starry Cross or at the New 
Jerusalem " coming down from God out of heaven. 7 ' 
Hence, we can say: "Oh! death, where is thy 
sting? Oh! grave, where is thy victory? 77 when 
departing this life. A stormless realm of glory 
awaits our upward flight to the skies, if we only 
have confessed our allegiance to the God of angels 
and the God of glory. 

Nor could we have gained this knowledge of 

H 



ii 4 ATRIP TO THE SKIES. 

the skies had not some mind penetrated the " Bands 
of Orion, 77 or the " sweet influences of Pleiades, 77 
other than astronomers. Thousands of years have 
passed away, and still these grand old constella- 
tions continue to grace the heavenly arch. How 
unlike the weak-minded teachings of mythology 
is the grand system of Christian astronomy, and 
the still higher beauty, as the apostle has asserted, 
" for unto the angels hath He not put in subjection 
the world to come whereof we speak? 77 (Hebrews 
2: 15) as though to the true loyalty of heaven He 
had reserved a glory far transcending the glory 
even of angels. 

The attention of the reader has been carefully, 
and we think logically, called to the chance man- 
agement of a machine so vast as is the stellar skies, 
and to the intelligent management of this galaxy 
by the labors of the mighty angels. By the latter 
we may expect a continuance of these stellar regu- 
lators of "time and seasons, of days and years, 77 in 
perpetual harmony, until the ultimate and proxi- 
mate purposes of God are accomplished. 

In passing over this trip, the reader will grasp 
the majesty of these ponderous orbs, with all their 
gigantic proportions, hastening through space at a 
rate exceeding that of the Minie rifie ball whirled 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 115 

on its flight by the greatest possible force, so terri- 
ble. Even Mercury passed us at the speed of 
12,000 miles an hour —three and one-third miles per 
second. A world of the size of Mercury hurrying 
on with ceaseless activity at such a bewildering 
speed. We see a passenger train flying over the 
track at one mile a minute — one mile in sixty sec- 
onds — and then turn and see a world pass us at 
three and one- third miles in a single second, and 
we are lost in the terrible whirl of worlds. 

And to realize the million of million of worlds 
in the vast expanse, the motions and magnitudes 
of which, in our fleet chariot, we could only par- 
tially explore, the regularity of their orbits, their 
vast ponderability, the why and wherefore of this 
mighty display, and then to suppose in the near 
future that we shall have aught to do with this 
grandeur — with this majesty of worlds overwhelm- 
ing as we might suppose the intellect of a Gabriel; 
to suppose and believe that we shall awake to 
realize this glory ourselves, we of earthly origin, 
with powers of mind hardly sufficient to grasp the 
majesty of these wonders, is indeed beatific. And 
what must the Christian's crown of glory be if it 
shines as the stars in the firmanent forever and 
ever? 



n6 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Homeward. 

Let our fleet train of thought now leave these 
" Chambers of the South," (Job, 9: 8.) this wonder- 
ful constellation in the far off stellar skies, and ask 
ourselves where, in this limitless field, shall we find 
the South Pole — the grand climax of the heavenly 
arch. Directions, distances, place or position, avail 
but little in this vastly incomprehensible field of 
limitless space, and if susceptible to the contem- 
plation of our surroundings, how worthless must 
all human glory appear. Still we wish to know of 
the trackless depths of space and as we shortly 
must leave this life for a life among the stars, it 
really becomes our duty to explore the Creator's 
works as being the final abode of his earth-begot- 
ten royalty. 

If our wish could be a compass, then our train 
might fly with the velocity of thought back towards 
the little orb of our- nativity; content with having 
seen the Starry Cross and Altar in the Chambers 
of the South. 

Says Dr. J. D. Steele in his " Fourteen Weeks 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. n; 

in Astronomy: 1 ' u At the Southern pole there is no 
conspicuous star, but the richness and number of 
the neighboring stars compensate this deficiency, 
and give to the heavens an incomparable splendor." 
Here is the magnificent constellation Argo, in 
which we find Canopus looked upon in ancient 
times as next to Sirius in brilliancy. A variable 
star now surpasses it in brightness. Nearly at the 
height of the South pole blazes the 

" S O U T II E R X C ROSS ." 

There is no mythology from ancient Greece or 
Rome that attaches to these Southern skies, except 
it be the ship Argo, with Jason and the Argonauts, 
in search of the golden fleece. A condensed sketch 
of this wonderful journey we will give to our 
readers, so that they may realize the darkness of 
the days of Grecian mythology. 

Colchis was the rock-bound shore of creation, 
against which the glorious orb of day dashed itself 
at every setting. Tubes not very unlike our con- 
duit pipes, yet invisible, received the broken frag- 
ments of the sun, and carried them back to the 
Orient, where they were gathered together and 

ime the blazing morning sun, riding high in 
the heavens another day, to be dashed to pieces 
against the eternal rocks of Colchis at night. 



u8 A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 

This is indeed a very easy method of solving 
the problem of day and night, and the hero that 
conld navigate the unknown seas to Colchis, might 
well be promised a kingdom on his return. 

The King of Thessaly— Anthamas— had two 
children, Phryxus and Helle. The step-mother of 
the son and daughter of Anthamas persecuted 
these childen, and in their flight for safety Mur- 
cury furnished them the Ram that grew the golden 
fleece. This Ram flew through the heavens in a 
journey to Colchis in modern balloon style, carry- 
ing on his back both Phryxus and Helle. In cross- 
ing the Dardenells, thereafter called Hellespont, 
Helle became dizzy and fell and was drowned. The 
Ram went on to Colchis, carrying Phryxus in his 
journey over the unknown seas, and in the end the 
Ram was slain as an offering to Jupiter, and his 
golden fleece given to ^Etes, who ordered, it to be 
kept in a consecrated grove at Colchis. Jason con- 
structed the grandest ship of the age, and with a 
promise that he should be King of Thessaly on his 
return with the golden fleece, set sail with a few 
veteran volunteers for the land of the gods and 
the fleece of honor. 

Tribulations met him at all points in his jour- 
ney, birds that threw their feathers like porcupine 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 119 

quills, rocks that would not lie still and let him 
pass, and storms, and offended deities haunted 
him in his journey. 

Jason at length reached Colchis, and King 
^Etes consented to let him take the fleece, pro- 
vided that he would "yoke the two fire-breathing 
bulls of Vulcan to a plowshire of adamant, and 
plow with them four acres of land, consecrated to 
Mars, never before turned up. He was then to 
sow in the furrows the remaining serpent's teeth 
of Cadmus, now in possession of iEtes, and to kill 
the armed heroes which they produced, and at last 
to fight with and slay the dragon that guarded the 
the golden fleece. 7 ' 

Media loved Jason. Media Was the daughter 
of ^Etes. Juno and Minerva, goddesses, had in- 
structed Media and she brought Jason through all 
right. He yoked the bulls, plowed the field, stupi- 
fied the dragon, and sailed for Corinth and reached 
his destination with Media, his young and loving 
wife, and taking home with him the golden fleece. 

Such is a condensed history of the ship Argo, 
and the Argonauts, as seen in the exalted teach- 
ings of Greek mythology; and then these valiant 
heroes and the gods sent this mighty ship- up to 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



the skies, and made it one of the Southern constel- 
lations. 

If we now turn our attention homeward we 
shall pass the constellation of Argo, which, with 
ten bright suns, lies a little to our left and then 
on, a hundred trillion of miles, and we see a little 
speck as large as a cherry-stone— a way f af off, that 
is earth, the land of our nativity. Let us now take 
our telescope a moment and look at those bright 
stars that we see by natural vision. Look! the 
telescope brings to our view six thousand double 
stars, that to us had appeared as single. The 
polestar — Polaris — has an attendant star eighteen 
minutes off; and Rigel one only ten minutes off, 
appearing to us as only a single star. 

Some 650 of. these are, so to speak, tied 
together, and are called physically united; that is, 
they revolve around each other. Thus, Lyra is a 
binary star, while Orionis is a system of seven 
brilliant orbs. 

These systems of stars have periods in which 
they perform entire revolutions around each other. 

Ursa Major is a binary star; and since discov 
ered, these suns have made one entire revolution 
around each other. 

The periods in which eight of these double 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



stars have performed an entire revolution is very 
nearly one hundred years; while over three hun- 
dred have revolving periods of nearly a thousand 
years each. The orbits of these stars are immense. 
Thus sixty-one Cygnia is supposed to have an 
orbit of 5,028,771,000,000 miles in circumference. 
The stars we are passing are all aglow in the 
seven prismatic colors. Antares is red, Capello 
yellow, Lyra blue and Castor green. 

But away yonder is the Solar System, sup- 
posed to embrace in its network of attractions one 
hundred and twenty-five planets, satellites and 
asteroids; the nearest one of these to the earth we 
inhabit is our faithful Luna— the Moon. Let us 
here stop a moment and look at its wonderful 
face. At some subsequent period, this orb appears 
to have been broken by volcanic forces, as the 
extinguished craters abundantly show, while at 
the present time no volcanic fires are visible. To 
us it shows a ragged exterior of mountains that 
are elevated from three to four miles, with little 
atmosphere and no verdure visible. But valleys 
and rocks appear in terrible confusion. 

Revolving upon its axis consecutively every 
lunar month, obliges it to show the same face con- 
stantly to our telescopic observation; and so we 



A TRIP TO THE SKIES. 



must guess at the appearance of its other hemis- 
phere. 

We may now, if we choose, change cars, and 
take an express train of electricity, and arrive at 
our journey's end in eight minutes; having only 
240,000 miles to travel, and we are at home. 

But this world is not our long-abiding place — 
we must leave it. Still, may we not hope to secure 
to ourselves an unclouded title to those mansions, 
so bright and so glorious, on the other shore ? And 
may both writer and reader, by and by, gain a 
happy admittance among the redeemed of the 
stellar skies, in the mansion and palace of Gi-od. 

THE END. 



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